Get Rel
by Sulia Shincho
Summary: The high demanded sequel to For Rel. This time Heero's going to try to beat by going under disguise himself and he's not alone.
1. Sheboygan

Get Rel

NOTE:  I don't own Gundam Wing or its characters.

Okay people, once again there will be OCs but no one that will be interfering with gundam wing couples.  Also, thank you all for your support on my other fic, For Rel, much appreciated.

Paris was a dead-end.  Apparently Salimar, or rather Relena, had planned on Heero looking for her in Paris and set up a false story about her being there.  He searched for her under all sorts of names and checked the train station security cameras for anyone that resembled Relena in the least bit.  She obviously wasn't there; it would be far too easy for her.

So, Heero and his two companions flew back to Italy and question her friends, Adam, Sage, Lynn, and Draca again.  They weren't very reluctant in telling him where Relena was, just very vague…

_"Where's Relena?" Heero had inquired._

_"She's not here anymore," answered Draca._

_"We know that, but where did she go?!" demanded Duo, sitting through this "interrogation" along with Heero and Hilde._

_"Somewhere else," shrugged Sage before taking a sip of his hot chocolate.  "Ow!  That burns!"_

_"Where has Relena gone?" Hilde interjected._

_"Away," supplied Adam with a grin.  The three preventers were obviously getting very irritated with Relena's group of friends._

_"Is there any clue that any of you can give us as to where Relena is?" Heero asked the group._

_"Certainly, ask the right question and you'll receive a fair answer," __Lynn__ told them with a wink._

_"Is Relena still on the Earth?" questioned Heero._

_"Absolutely, there's just so few places to go that has at least two friends to blend with," Adam replied with an accepting nod.  _That's right Heero; you're catching on now_, thought Adam._

_"What country has some friends of Relena's?" Hilde inquired._

_"Well there's the former __South Korea__, __England__, and the former United States of America__…" _Lynn___ listed._

_"But you should probably know that she is living in a fairly small town, and that anyone who is a friend of Relena's was an e-mail friend before and from the war," added Draca._

_"Thank you for your help," smiled Duo getting up to leave.  "Oh, by the way, could you tell us what city in the __United States__, or at least what state?"_

_"Well…it's in the state of __Wisconsin__ and well, let's just say that the population is no more than 10,000 people," winked Sage with a devilish grin on his features while the others hid their silent giggles behind their hands or smiles.  _

They knew something that they weren't willing to share with the rest of the Preventers, but that didn't matter to Heero when he had gone off to Japan to check in with Lady Une and Zeches.  That hadn't gone over too well…

_"Absolutely not!" yelled Lady Une while meeting with Heero, his fellow preventers, and Zeches in her office.  "There will be no more following Ms. Peacecraft to the ends of the Earth and Colonies!  Heero, you _do_ have other priorities!"_

_"Lady Une, surely you can see that we're making great improvement now," Duo argued._

_"Indeed, that cannot be denied, but I believe that I had ordered you and Ms. Schibecker to drop the Peacecraft case _completely_, instead you still chased after her with Mr. Yuy here!" Lady Une retorted sharply.  "As for your improvement, any additional information you have on Relena is best to be presented right here and now for Zeches has decided to take charge in finding Ms. Peacecraft."_

_Hilde and Duo both wanted to protest but didn't, Heero just closed his eyes; he knew that would happen.  Still, he felt that Relena was his responsibility and not Zeches, he didn't care if they were siblings, Relena had been his charge!_

_"Find your own information or get it out of one of these two, I'm going to find Relena on my own and without this department's help," Heero told his superior as he drew his pistol and his badge then placed down on his former superiors desk._

_Lady Une gaped at the former Gundam pilot as he marched out of the room without so much as a glance back.  Nervously she glanced over at the calm Zeches; obviously he didn't expect anything less to happen._

_What happened next did surprise the former White Fang commander, Hilde followed Heero's lead and left her pistol and badge on Une's desk then left, but not before whispering something to Duo when he was about to do the same.  It was plain to see that Hilde did not want Duo to follow in Heero and hers tracks._

_However, the moment Hilde left the room Duo did the exact same thing, grinning one of his cheesy grins.  "Guess, Zeches is going to have to start from scratch on this one," taunted Duo before dashing out the door, waving bye to Shun-li quickly._

All that had led up to this moment, where they were on a one-way flight to the United States, or more specifically, Mitchell Airport in Wisconsin.  From there Heero had no idea what they were going to do but he wasn't about to set a foot on land without some sort of plan being formed.

 "Hey," Hilde spoke up from her aisle seat, which she got stuck with since Duo beat her to the window seat, "Heero got any idea how we're going to find Relena?"

"Hn," was all Heero said.  He wasn't about to openly admit that he had no plan in mind.

"I was just thinking that perhaps we should go undercover…" suggested Hilde.

"Undercover?!" interrupted Duo.  "Why should we go undercover?  I mean really, it's not like we actually have the Preventer titles anymore so what would Relena have to fear from us?"

"Remember that she doesn't know that we no longer have those titles, besides she isn't about to just pop out and say 'hey guys, here I am!'.  If we approach her or the town as ourselves and not undercover she's just going to blend more with her friends and out of our sights," Hilde explained, hitting Duo's on the forehead.  "We have to beat Relena at her own game if we're to find."

Heero nodded, as much as he hated the idea it made perfect sense to him and it was one way to find Relena without her knowing.

Duo gulped, "Does this mean that I'll have to get my hair cut or something?"

Hilde turned to Duo with an evil glint in her eye, and then she turned towards Heero and whispered something in his ear.  "That may work," agreed Heero.

"What?  What may work?" Duo asked, swallowing hard.

"Well…" began Hilde before leaning towards Duo and whispering her suggestion in his ear, "you could always go undercover as a girl.  You should be able to pass as a tomboy."

"What?!  I'm not doing any crossing-dressing!" yelled Duo, attracting the attention of everyone in the general area of the plane.  Hilde sank in her seat to get out of the sights of the other people while Heero just opened a book and pretended to read.  In the back of his mind Heero was already choosing their new identities, new files, and everything, all he needed was a picture of their new 'looks' and the town that Relena could be living in.

Luckily the book Heero had picked up to pretend to read was a book of Wisconsin information.  Scanning the map he was looking at he glanced over the cities and their populations to date and past populations.  It seemed that most of Wisconsin, except for most of the major cities, had been decreasing in population for the last century.

Heero glanced over the populations, most were in their thirty or twenty thousands or even less than a thousand.  Finally, his choices were narrowed down to five of them and only one of them had a nearly 10,000 population, Sheboygan.

_Found you, I hope,_ thought Heero confidently.  "I think I know where we're going and what college she maybe going to."

"Really?!" Duo cried, leaning over Hilde's lap to look at the book.  "Where?  Where?!"

Shoving Duo off of her Hilde just sighed as she too waited for Heero's answer.

"I believe she's in Sheboygan and that she maybe going to University of Wisconsin Oshkosh," announced Heero.

"Alright then, now all we need to do is get back on the ground, get our files and IDs done, and get our make-overs completed," grinned Hilde.

"I'm not going as a girl," grumbled Duo.


	2. New Arrivals

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't own Gundam ****Wing or its **characters.****

Glad you **guys** approve of **this **sequel idea.

This sucked, it really did.  After all, what real man would allow himself to have steeped this low?!  Certainly not someone like Wufei, but the problem is Duo isn't Wufei, so he was stuck wearing this knee-length, aqua skirt (with boxers underneath), nylons, and a yellow tank top.  

"I ought to kill you both for _this," he muttered as he straightened the skirt that liked to ride up his manly thighs._

Keeping his eyes on the road while driving their silver convertible, Heero replied, "Then you should have let Hilde give you a trim at the hotel yesterday."

"But she wanted to take off six inches.  Six!  That's half a foot!" argued Duo making an emphasis on the length by demonstrating the inches with his hands.

"I can do the math myself," Heero stated dryly.

From the backseat Hilde leaned forward a bit.  "Come on Duo, it's not _that horrible.  It's not like we're _forcing_ you to wear skirts or dresses," assured Hilde, hiding a mischief grin behind a forced yawn._

Instead of immediately replying Duo fidgeted with his padded bra that had pudding filled balloons tucked inside to act as breasts.  "No, but it's all that I can wear that won't reveal 'Duo Jr.' to everyone in this town that we're heading to."

Heero sighed, "Could have worn those baggy pants that Hilde had picked out for you to wear."

The former Deathscythe pilot just rolled his eyes at the suggestion.  "But I would trip in those things!  Besides, they do nothing for my figure," whined Duo.  "I mean come on, I have some killer hips."

The other two companions rolled their eyes as Heero pulled into a gas station and parked in front of a gas pump.  Hilde jumped out of the car to fill up the tank of gas wearing jean capris with an orange spaghetti strapped shirt.  Ignoring the wolf calls and the drooling men's stares Hilde just decided to lean against the car and twirl her newly bleached hair.

_I should have died it ruby red or something instead of this ugly blond.  I look stupid as a blond,_ Hilde absentmindedly commented.  Then she glanced at the back of Heero's head.  _Though I suppose Heero has it the worst, having to brush his hair for once, and brush his bangs off to the side of his forehead, then having to dye it that darkened orange color._

Quickly Hilde adverted her eyes when she noticed that Heero was turning around to her.  "Hilde, here's your drivers' license, social security card, credit card," to this Hilde raised an eyebrow.  "It's not meant to be used for shopping sprees, college acceptance papers, and here's your passport," Heero told her, handing her all her necessary items.

Looking at her license for her new identity, Hilde gave an expression twisted with disgust.  "My name is Mindy Jones?  What the hell kind of a name is that?!"

"Hey, my name is Selfie Zimmerman; it's not even an uni-sex name!  I thought I was supposed to be some kind of a tomboy," complained Duo trying to hand back his identification to Heero.  "Change the name man; change it to something more masculine like Sam or something."

"You're stuck with that name whether you like it or not," refused Heero stuffing his identification into his back pocket.  "Besides, I think the name Selfie suites you quite well since you are cross-dressing."

"Keh!" scoffed Duo crossing his arms over his chest.

"What's your name, Heero?" Hilde inquired.

"Eiji Kyosei," answered the former gundam pilot.

"Sure…you get the cool name," Duo mimicked while Heero glared at him.

With the tank full Hilde jumped back into the backseat of the car.  "Let's get out of here," she said.  "How much longer until we get to Sheboygan?"

"About another 45 minutes, maybe less," Heero told her.

*****

Sitting on the front steps of a white house sat five people talking amongst themselves as a bunch of younger children were playing softball in the streets, trying not to break a window of any of the surrounding houses.

Within the group that sat on the steps there were two girls and three boys.  One girl had jet black hair with wide, innocent blue eyes, and there was a girl with short-boyish, amber hair with daring brown eyes.  For the boys there was a boy with white-blond hair and icy blue eyes, a rustic haired boy with playful eyes, and lastly a boy that looked exactly as the boyish girl, except his eyes were an emerald green.

"Hey, did anyone besides my family get some notice that a college exchanged student was going to be housed with your family?" questioned the girl with black hair.

"Now that you mention it Amy, yeah.  Jason had mentioned something about that this morning at work.  Oshkosh had sent her a notice about the an exchange student staying with her family since there were no more available dorms at campus," nodded the blond boy.  "Very weird if you ask me."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" interjected the boy with rustic hair.  "Now this is really freaky.  I got the same notice as Amy and Jason; we never get the same notice.  Never!"

"Ha, ha!" taunted the boyish girl.  "Now you all get to have a taste of what it's like to have to share a household."

"Well, pardon some of us who don't have to live with our baby sister and cousin, Frankie," snapped the rustic boy.

"Watch Bobby, she may devising a plan on how to kill you," warned the blond boy jokingly.

"Jake!" scolded Amy, slapping the blond upside the head.  "Behave yourself, anyways, you're probably added to the hit list now."

"Shut up, my cousin's not a killer like that.  She has more class than that, she'd most likely poison your drinks or food when you're not looking," defended the boy with emerald eyes.

"Robin, I thought you were on my side!" Frankie yelled.

At that moment two more girls ran up to the house gasping for air, appearing as though they had just finished a marathon.

"Hey Joey, Jason where's the fire?" joked Jake with a wide grin on his features.

"Shove it bookie," retorted a girl with brown hair streaked black.  "Guys, you won't believe what news we just got from Jackson."

The others stared completely clueless at the two girls.

"News of what exactly?" Amy questioned.

Joey and Jason exchanged grins before Joey, a black haired Asian girl, answered, "We've got new arrivals on their way here."

"That means what exactly?" Bobby yawned; he thought the news would be something worth hearing.

"Just keep your eyes and hears open," advised Frankie, catching onto Joey and Jason's meaning as the group shared mischief grins, except for Bobby, who was still lost.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.


	3. Tolerable Residence

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't own Gundam ****Wing or its **characters.****

The town's own Jackson Lampe had just returned from his year long stay in England and was greeted by the sight of deserted streets.  Not a person was in sight, not even his own family, any of his friends, not even that tomboy Frankie was around.

He sighed.  "I really should not have expected anything more from them, not even when I HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THOSE NEW PEOPLE!" he screamed, knowing that no matter where any of the gang was they heard him.

"What about the new people?" came a voice from behind Jackson causing him to jump about five feet into the air and drop his suit case on the person's foot.  "OW!"

When Jackson landed on the ground he noticed that it was his buddy Bobby hopping up and down while holding injured foot, and then behind Bobby was Jake, Salem (Joey's twin brother), and Warren-a college kid with pure jet black hair.  They were all grinning and waving Jackson welcome.

"OW!  Here I am hopping around since SOMEONE had to DROP his SUITCASE on my TOE!" howled Bobby not realizing that he was the only person standing in the middle of the street when the horn of a never before seen car honked at him.

Slowly Bobby turned around to see a car that held two girls and a Japanese boy with orange that only Asian people seemed able to create.  Stupidly he just stood there with his mouth gapping open, trying to form some words.

"Move!" cried the girl from the backseat with dark blond hair, obviously bleached.

"Sure, just give me a moment!" Bobby yelled back as he hopped as best as he could to the sidewalk while his friends across the street laughed themselves crazy until they were kneeling on the concrete trying to catch their breaths.

"What was that about the new arrivals?" Salem asked between breaths.

Collecting his bearings Jackson answered, "That was them."

Recovering from his fit of laughter Jake stood up and chuckled, "And here we thought that is was one of those Preventer people trying to find our master of disguise, Relena."

"Hush, like anyone could find our dear Lena, she can blend with almost anybody of any sex," Warren grinned straightening up when he noticed that the car with the new arrivals had pulled up between Amy and Bobby's houses, which he was Bobby's neighbor and quite concerned about this when he recalled that there was a spare room across from his bedroom window.

"Mother fluckers!" cursed Bobby, hopping his way to his house to help bring in this 'Selfie Zimmerman's' baggage into the house, considering his parents were away at work.  "Hi, I'm Bobby Lucas, yeah I'm the son of the family one of you two…uh girls are going to be staying with…" 

"Thank you, my bags are in the back," the girl in the front seat smiled sweetly with this forced high pitch voice that sounded completely wrong for a woman.

Brushing it off with a shrug Bobby went to the trunk, after the driver had popped open the trunk and then pulled out the suit case that had the name Selfie Zimmerman labeled on it.  It was a having suitcase too, which made Bobby quite fearful that he may drop it by some perchance on his already injured foot.

"Pardon Bobby!" cried Amy's voice as she shoved him aside, dropping the suitcase on the sidewalk and not on his foot.  Amazingly, the suitcase made a small imprint in the concrete which made Bobby's eye start to twitch out of nervousness.

_That thing is _that_ heavy?!  Lord save us all from this crazy girl, prayed Bobby as he picked up the suitcase and lugged into his house with 'Selfie Zimmerman' following, quite fidgetedly, behind him._

Meanwhile, Amy pulled out 'Mindy Jones'' bags out of the back, which happened to be fairly light suitcases but she didn't get the chance to pull them out of the trunk when Salem decided to be helpful and take out the suitcase needed and slam the trunk closed.

"Uh…thanks, Salem," Amy acknowledged before turning to the last girl in the car.  "You're staying with my family missy, welcome to the Phillips' household, Mindy Jones."

"Great!" grinned 'Mindy Jones' as she jumped out of the car and joined Salem and Amy on the streets.  "See you later Eiji!"

With that 'Eiji' took off down the street to find his new 'home'.

"Well, let's go in and get you settled," suggested Amy pleasantly.  "Salem, isn't the 'company' over at Jason's house right now?"

"When are they not?" snorted Salem noticing 'Mindy's' bewildered expression.  "We'll explain what we mean in due time."

Heero did not expect this place to so…quant.  It was tiny compared to most of the cities he had seen as a Preventer and as a soldier.  Very small and probably with a very close community.

_It should take me only a matter of days to find Relena here,_ he thought to himself.  _I'm not going to underestimate her again!_  When making the vow he had parked the car and turned off the ignition in front of a two-story house that looked like it should have been the set of a horror or suspense film from Hollywood.  

Getting out his duffle bag Heero marched up the steps of the house and rang the door bell, then waited.  And waited.  And waited some more, until as he was about to knock on the door itself, it was opened by someone with amber hair and emerald eyes.

"Jason Collins, I presume," he addressed the person.

The person laughed in a sort of deep voice before looking behind the door and motioning someone to come to the door before returning his or her attention to Heero.  "Sorry, but you got the wrong person," the person assured, confirming to Heero that this person was a male that was late in puberty.

Suddenly the boy was replaced by a girl with brown and black hair.  "I'm Jason Collins, nice to meet you Eiji Kyosei.  Come right on in and make yourself at home," offered Jason.

_Jason's a girl!  I thought I would be staying at a boy's home.   I should have done more research instead of just looking at the names.  Yuy, you are getting rather careless aren't you?!_ he scolded himself as he entered the house to find the room next to the door, possibly the living room, was packed with a group of girls, save for three boys.

All of them were watching Heero with great interest and waiting for him to either introduce himself or be introduced by Jason.  Neither of which happened at first, no instead the group decided to do roll call.

First there was Robin Shelly-person who Heero noted answered the door, Joey Alley, Frankie Shelly, April Ash,  Vicky Wickham (a girl that could very much have been Zeches twin, but with a feminine face), Ricky Racoon (a boy that had a mischief air around him), Ringo Racoon (Ricky's older brother), and last was Kaitlyn Alley (Joey's younger sister).

"Eiji Kyosei," Heero stated at last.

"He's cute…" commented Vicky as she drank in Heero's features.  Not that Heero minded, he knew that women often would size him up and even send him wolf calls, but to this he never paid any heed to.

"She's in love all over again," April commented, blowing aside a stray grey bang.

_Grey hair…girls have some of the most ridiculous trends,_ remarked Heero.

"You never know April, she just might actually make a song up about Eiji here like she did to Jake," teased Ricky, only to be bopped on the head with a literature book.  "OW!"

"Jerk!" Vicky declared.

"Okay, ignoring the strange and queer folk that are currently occupying my house, let's go see your room," suggested Jason, pulling Heero up a staircase, down a hall, and up another staircase until they were at, Heero presumed to be, the attic.  

Who could not think it was the attic?!  It was covered in dust, filled with unused furniture and did not have any real modern equipment in it.  It didn't even have electricity running through the place.

_Well, that leaves out the option of using their phone line to call up Duo or Hilde, but I suppose it is for the best,_ sighed Heero as he rubbed his temples and stood in his 'room'.  "Cozy," he said dryly.

"Yeah, I know it's not a Hilton room or even a Motel 6 room, but it was either this or you bunking with me in my room," Jason told him.  "Still, you could always sleep in sofa city, but be warned that about five or six o'clock in the morning the house is usually invaded by my friends, my rivals, or my dad's buddies.  It's not exactly a quiet time, but if you think you can sleep through it all, be my guest."

Heero didn't very much like that idea.  Sure, a sofa would be a lot more comfortable than that camping cot, but Heero had suffered through worse in the past.  Plus he liked his privacy, which was one thing that he felt that he must always have.  His privacy and his laptop, two of his top three 'must haves' the three was Relena's whereabouts, which he was a bit lacking on. 

"So," spoke up Jason, "I'll leave you to settle in and I'll see what I can do about getting rid of my posse."  With that, his hostess left him to his own devices and Heero let out a sigh.

"This is going to take some time," he stated in defeat as he looked about the room.  _I'll have to call up Hilde and Duo later.  Rolling up his sleeves Heero began to get to work on making this attic a tolerable place to take residence in._


	4. Possible Relenas

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't own Gundam ****Wing or its **characters.****

Zeches had no idea that Adam, Sage, Draca, and Lynn were so impossible.  Now he understood why Duo and Hilde had gotten frustrated with them when they had asked where Relena was.

_They talk in riddles,_ he thought as he sat across from the four of them.  "Tell me where my sister is," he commanded coolly.

"Your sister…Oh, Relena, that's right, you're her big brother aren't you?" grinned Draca.  "Shouldn't you know, since you are her brother…Wait a minute, she didn't even know where you were or where to find you.  I forgot about that." 

Zeches cringed on the inside but kept a straight face on the out.  He hated the fact that he had never communicated with Relena of where he was or his activities, or permitted Noin to tell her where he was.  He just wanted to keep her safe from any of his 'bad luck' that seemed to follow him around wherever he went.

First he lost the Sank Kingdom and his parents, next he had to be separated from his sister, then the gundams came along, the damnable war, Zero, Eypon, and then the White Fang.  He seemed to have the worst luck in the universe, and it scared him that it may follow him even after the war.

"Tell me everything that you told Heero and the others," he ordered coldly.

Adam laughed.  "Dude, you are not the only one who follows orders.  Any information that we gave to Heero, Hilde, or Duo was meant for them and they alone.  Relena likes to specify who we are to give location information out to."

"But you know where she is," Zeches presumed as he leaned across the table looking straight at Lynn, trying to intimidate her into spilling everything with his icy eyes.

To this Lynn broke out into a smirk.  "If we do, we are not to say so."

"Wait a minute," Sage interrupted, "isn't it the other way around?  If we do not know, we are not to say so?"

"Was it that way?" Lynn asked innocently.  "Oh, I must have misinterpreted Relena's instructions then."  She shrugged it all off as though it was her mis-translation to her directions, still Zeches had the suspicion that she had not misinterpreted her orders.

"You four do realize that I can make your lives a living hell if you refuse to tell me all that you told Heero," Zeches warned in an intimidating manner that it would make almost anyone quake in their shoes or begin to sweat, but it didn't have any affect on these four.

"We were well aware of the consequences when we first took up this task of keeping Relena hidden from the Preventers, Mr. Peacecraft, but we took up this task anyway.  If you were in our situation you would be sitting where I am and saying the exact same thing back to me," Draca replied with a poker face.

Zeches just got up and left the room and went straight to Lady Une's office.

"Um…Mr. Peacecraft, Lady Une's in a meeting right now and you know how she hates to be interrupted!" the secretary, Shun-li, warned as Zeches stormed past her and entered the office anyways.

"Une!" he roared as he interrupted his superior's briefing with Preventer Po and Chang.  _Huh…maybe…_

"What do you want Zeches?" sighed Lady Une as she removed her glasses and massaged her temples.  The elder Peacecraft child was becoming a thorn in her side now and it was bothering her very much.

"I need to borrow Po and Chang.  Perhaps they can gather information out of those four better than I," he answered.

Lady Une glared at Zeches.  "I shall not put any other Preventers, other than you, on this case Zeches," she hissed at him.

"I do not ask them to be put on the case with me, all I ask is that you lend them to me to get some information out of those four friends of Relena's," assured Zeches.  

Lady Une made a waving gesture with her hand that told Sally and Wufei to go on and get the information as soon as possible.  Saluting to their superior the trio made their way down the corridor.

"What information do you need us to retrieve from these civilians?" Sally inquired.

"Just where Relena is located now.  They refuse to tell me, so I am taking a guess and thinking they may tell you two, as long as I am not present," Zeches explained.  "Be careful when talking to them, they will be suspicious of you two suddenly being present and being 'put on the case'."

"They can't be that troublesome," snorted Wufei looking indifferent about the situation.

Sally rolled her eyes as she and Wufei entered the interrogation room.

"Hey, hey!  Look here freaky darlings, it's the good doctor and the Chinese Darcy!" exclaimed Draca.

"Come to question us about Relena as well?" asked Sage with a yawn, he was becoming quite bored with this.

"Not at all," smiled Sally as she sat down across the table while Wufei stood behind her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.  "We came here to see how you all were doing."

"Oh…?" Lynn questioned quirking an eyebrow.  "Do tell…"

*****

Heero ate Chinese take-out food with Jason, Robin, Frankie, Joey, and Salem in the kitchen.  He didn't particularly like Chinese food but he was not about to complain after surviving off of beef jerky and coffee for the entire day.

"Prepare to fight, Jason!" challenged Joey holding out a chopstick as though she were holding a sword and ready to duel.

"I accept your challenge, you fiend!" Jason accepted doing likewise.  The girls went at it, until Jason's chopstick flew out of her hand and at Salem's face.

"Hey!" cried Joey's outraged brother.

"Sorry Salem," Jason grinned as to pulled out her other chopstick and continued the duel.

Heero ignored the entertainment and decided to size up his enemies to distinguish who Relena could most likely be.

_She could not be __Salem__, for he is too silent for her to be him.  She could be Jason, perhaps even Joey or Frankie, or even someone like Robin, but Robin seems a bit too quiet and reserved to be Relena, Heero thought as he felt a patch of chicken fried rice land on his lap.  Instead of looking down at his lap Heero just glared at Robin, who obviously was the person the fried rice came from._

"Um…whoops," shrugged Robin with an innocent smile.  "It was her fault!"  Robin pointed at his cousin who just gapped at accusation.

"I did no such thing!  How could I?" protested Frankie tipping her carton of food for Robin and Heero to see.  "Especially when I'm eating sweet 'n' sour chicken instead of chicken fried rice, _Robin?"_

Robin just whistled and then made his great escape out of the room.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" everyone heard Robin scream, sounding very much feminine like, as he stumbled back into the living room.

Heero leapt to his feet, tossing aside his own carton of sweet 'n' sour, he need to be able to protect everyone in the room should it be the worst case scenario such as a robber, a homicidal maniac, or a murderer.  The former Preventer tensed as the person entered the room.  It was a fairly tall fellow that looked identical to Jason, save for the streaks.

"Thomas!  What do you think you were doing creeping about the house at night when I have my friends over for supper?!" scolded Jason still fighting against Joey as she spoke.

"Is that anyway for you to greet your own dear, old, loving father?" the man named Thomas joked as he out stretched his arms as an invitation for a hug.  Jason just shook her head and so her father approached her to give her a hug.

"Uh…Thomas," Jason began as she dodged Thomas' bear hug and made a quick dash to Heero's side.  "Have you met Eiji yet?  He's that exchange student that we were informed would be sent to us."

Thomas grinned a huge toothy grin that Heero could compare to one of Duo's grins, as he pulled Heero into a hug.

"Nice to meet you Eiji, welcome to our humble home!" greeted Thomas.

_A handshake would have done just as well!_ Heero's mind screamed as he tried to breath through the bear hug.

After eating supper and picking up all the dropped food Heero sat in his 'room' starring up at his ceiling while his cell phone was wedged between his shoulder and ear.

"Heero, these people are inhuman!" Duo screamed.  "This guy, Bobby, his hand has a mind of its own or something and seems to be very attracted to light!  I swear the damn thing likes to touch any bit of light it can."

"Don't worry _Selfie_ you only need to put up with it for perhaps another week or so, that's about all really," Heero assured.  "Besides it's not as though you were hugged by Bobby's father."

Duo laughed heartedly at Heero's traumatizing experience.  "Jason's dad hugged you?!" he asked as he continued to laugh.

"We really should have chopped off that braid of yours," Heero said off-handedly, though it's meaning got across to Duo, who shut up immediately.

"You are not to touch my braid under any circumstances!" ordered Duo.

"You boys need to relax.  Do either of you have any solid ideas of who Relena could possibly be?" Hilde's voice interrupted, for they were on a three way line coming from Amy's house.

"No," both men stated.

"Okay then, let's get some sleep and then maybe try doing some real investigating tomorrow at the college," Hilde suggested.  "Night boys."

"Night _Mindy_!" Duo returned.

"Good night _Selfie_," Hilde said before hanging up.

"See you tomorrow Heero," Duo told his partner before hanging up.

"Hn," was all Heero could say then he hung up and blew out the candle by his bedside, the only source of light that he had.


	5. Rude Awaking

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't own Gundam ****Wing or its **characters.****

_"I do not get how you can be so uptight and not smile when the sun's out as it is now!  Come on, let out a smile, Heero, surely you can do that at least once for me," implored Relena, as Heero had once remembered her being before any of this run across the globe happened._

_Heero did no such thing and just stood by Relena as she sat on the hillside.  Realizing that he was not about to give her the pleasure of seeing him smile Relena just shook her head and stuck out her tongue._

_"Fine, be that way!" Relena teased before she began to roll down the hill, knowing full well of the grass stains that she would be getting on her light green dress._

_"Relena, this is no time to act childish!" Heero called after her in his monotone yet commanding voice._

_All he got in return was Relena's girlish giggles as she kept rolling until the bottom of the hill, then she called up to him with grass sticking out of her hair in all directions._

_"Come and catch me then Heero!" she called._

_Heero groaned as he took a step then embarrassingly out of character tripped and tumbled down the hill himself._

THUD!!!!!  Heero slammed onto the floor, hard and in the process had knocked his head against the night stand.

"Ow…!" he groaned.

"Ricky, give me that back you little thieving raccoon!" Heero heard someone yell from downstairs.

"As I said before Frankie, come and catch me then if you want your ramen noodles so badly!" teased Ricky as something was knocked down and there were a few more 'thuds' close to Heero's door.

_Is that what Jason meant by her house being "invaded", this intolerable noise?!_ Heero wondered as he got up and slipped on a pair of jeans, having slept in his boxers and yesterday's shirt.  As he opened the door to the hallway someone fell through the door and landed on his foot, hard.  "Hn!" he grunted looking down to see Frankie lying on his foot.

"Ow!" she laughed as she opened her eyes and smiled up at Heero.  "Hey Eiji, we didn't wake you up did we?" 

"That's a good question," Heero forced himself to say instead of grunting and glaring.  _Can't behave like normal or else that may give these people a hint of who I actually am, he reminded himself._

"Hurry up Frankie, I've got him," cried Frankie's cousin from down the hall.

"Alright!" cheered the tomboy as she quickly got to her feet and dashed down the hall.

Grumbling Heero headed down the hall to the stairs, passing Robin, Frankie, and a tied up Ricky in the hallway.  Sparing a glance at the trio Heero continued downstairs and went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, he rarely ate breakfast.

In the kitchen he found it crowded with not only Jason and her father but also Ringo, Joey, Salem, Kaitlyn, Darrell (Joey, Salem, and Kaityln's father), and Joe (Frankie's father).  All eyes turned to Heero at his entrance and watched him as he went to the pot of coffee and poured himself a mug, the crowd of eager watching company seemed to muffle some laughter as they watched Heero put his mug of coffee to his lips to take a sip.

Still not taking a drink Heero shifted his eyes about the room at all the on-looking eyes that were glued to him, each impatient to see him drink his coffee.  It was all very odd to Heero and the last time he recalled such an event was when Duo had slipped mustard into the coffee pot at the Preventer's Headquarters.  The other preventers had been watching him earnestly then, just like the company before him was.

Removing the mug from his lips Heero watched as his audience turned back to their previous activities.  Deciding that there was nothing extremely wrong with his coffee Heero took a sip of it.

The reaction of the coffee got a second-ever seen-expression of disgust, to the point where he began to turn green.  Conveniently, Jackson decided to waltz into the kitchen through the back door, right in front of Heero no less, when Heero sprayed the tainted drink out of his mouth and all over Jackson.

"Luh!" cried Jackson as he wiped his coffee stained cheek with the back of his hand.  Tasting the coffee Jackson quickly spat it back out.  "What the hell is in the coffee?"

The crowd was in a fit of hysterical laughter; in fact most of them were either laughing themselves silly on the floor or leaning on the counter for support.  Both Heero and Jackson sent death glares at the group but that didn't stop their laughter.

"Did he drink it yet?!" inquired Ricky as he bounced into the room eagerly, only to find Eiji glaring at him and Jackson taking off his shirt.

"What the hell did you put into the coffee, you little weasel?" Jackson exclaimed.

Robin entered the room and grabbed a shoulder bag, glancing at the scene for a moment and biting back a smile, he put on his bag and grabbed a set of car keys from the table.  "It's flour actually, doesn't it taste great?" winked Robin showing the keys to the group.  "Anyone who needs a ride can get one with me right now for the eight o'clock classes."

Heero looked down at his watch, 7:13 am, he needed to get to _his eight o'clock class, British Literature._

"Yeah, give me a ride Rob," nodded Ringo as he began to walk up to Robin, only to trip over his own feet and fall face flat on the floor.

"Ringo, you okay?" chuckled Jason when she entered the room, right when Ringo had fallen.  Ringo just mumbled something.  "Robin, I need a ride too, but I get to drive, you are not exactly the most confident driver in the world," Jason stated, snatching the keys from Robin's hand.

Robin just made a face at Jason before shrugging and nodding his head as though seeing some truth in Jason's statement.  "You can drive but only if you promise not to take any 'detours'," Robin agreed.

"Do I look like Joey to you?" Jason muttered as she exited the room with the other two carpool companions following.

Heero finished cleaning up his flour coffee mess and decided to go back upstairs when he heard the faint ringing of his cell phone.  Dashing up the stairs, taking two at a time, he made his way to his room.

In his room he found his cell phone on the floor, apparently he had knocked it down when he bumped his head, so he picked it up and answered the person who was phoning him this late in the morning.  Early morning to him meant 3:00 am and late morning was anything past 6:00 am.

"Yuy," he stated when he answered the phone.

"Hey, are you going to give me a ride or what, _Eiji?!" came Duo's pretend female voice on the other side of the phone._

Heero rolled his eyes as he bit back a grin.  "Sure _Selfie_, whenever you're ready to be picked up," Heero told his partner as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossing it off to the side.

"I'm ready to go right _now_," Duo told him as Heero heard Bobby in the background yelling at what sounded like his…hand?

"Fine, I'll be there in five minutes," Heero sighed as he picked up a shirt that read "Vacuums Suck", certainly not a shirt he had picked out nor one that he would wear on a normal basis.

"Try to make it five seconds," Duo almost pleaded before hanging up on Heero.

Shoving his phone into his pocket Heero put on his new shirt and grabbed his duffle bag for his college classes.  He couldn't help but think how ridiculous it was that he was going to college, after all he never truly went to school and any of the high schools he had entered in during the war he was always an outcast, by choice.

_This should prove to be very interesting.  Hopefully it won't be in vain,_ he thought, grabbing the keys to the car.

*****

Zeches had been waiting on the two preventers for the last five hours, which he felt was more than enough time to extract the information he needed, so he decided to call Wufei and Sally to meet with him.  When he went to the door and glanced inside he found the 'For Rel' group and Sally talking animatedly with each and even Wufei was putting a few comments that didn't consist of the word "woman".

He couldn't believe it, to say the least!  Still he opened the door catching only the words, "…that was the best part of the entire book!" from Draca before it went silent.

"Po, Chang, may I have a word with both of you?" Zeches requested, sparing the band a glare.

The preventers exchanged a glance before shrugging and following Zeches out of the room, but Sally stopped at the door and called over her shoulder, "Darcy's proposal scene was the best scene!"  Draca just shook her head as the door closed.

"What have you two found out?!" demanded Zeches, eager to know the result of the interrogation.

"We found out that the group enjoys reading classic romance novels by Jane Austen," grumbled Wufei crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"What about Relena?  What did you learn of her whereabouts?" Zeches pressed on.

"Well, we found out that she has a major fancy for plays and musicals.  Did you know she took part in almost every play she could since the age of six?  I'll be impressed if she doesn't somehow become an actress or something," Sally remarked.

"What of her whereabouts?!" yelled Zeches.

Another glance was exchanged between the two preventers before Wufei spoke up again.  "We can't tell you," he stated.

Zeches glared at the former gundam pilot and then raised an eyebrow.  "May I ask why not?"

"They made us promise not to ever tell you where she was," Sally told him, but upon seeing his frustration in his eyes and posture she quickly added, "but they never said we couldn't _show you."_

Zeches looked at her with interest.  "Then show me."


	6. Secretive Theorizing

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

Duo couldn't understand why anyone in his or her right of mind would dare go to college and enjoy it.  As he sat in the auditorium for his Music Theory Class he desperately scanned the room for anyone that he could possibly talk to, like any really hot girls that he could hit on…

_No,_ he had to remind himself, _you can't hit on girls, not while you're dressed like _this_!_

"Hey, is this seat taken?" came a voice that interrupted Duo's train of thought as he looked up to see the person who was addressing him.  _Wow, pinch me please, she's _hot_ though I can't exactly say that I like that multi-colored hair thing but yeah!_ Duo thought as he starred up at the goddess like person before him who was waiting patiently for a response.

"Uh…no the seat's not taken," Duo answered almost forgetting again that he was in disguise as a girl, much to his dismay.

The person sat down and pulled out a tape recorder and inserted a brand new cassette into it.  Deciding that even though he was pretending to be a girl that it shouldn't stop him from making some pretty acquaintances Duo took the liberty of introducing his character.

"I'm D-Selfie Zimmerman," he said while mentally yelling at himself for forgetting his female name and holding out a hand to shake the person's.

"Jason Collins, nice to meet you," Jason smiled taking Duo's hand and shaking it.

_Whoa, screw the hair that smile is great!_ decided Duo as he and Jason were soon joined by a person that could have been mistaken for a boy.

"Hey Robin," Jason greeted as the person propped down into the chair in front of Duo.

"Morning," returned Robin.

_Aw!  It is a guy!  That's too bad, he would have been almost as hot as Jason if he were a girl!  Gah!  Damn it Duo, don't let your thoughts be turned that way, you're a heterosexual guy!_ Duo told himself as he began to beat his head against his desk unaware that Jason and Robin were eyeing him curiously.

"Does she have mental problems?" Robin asked.  Jason just shrugged as the professor decided to stroll in at that moment and Duo had thankfully stopped banging his head on the desk.

"Heads up class," ordered the teacher, who was a tall man with dark black hair and Duo couldn't help but somehow associate him with some of his Saturday morning cartoon characters with the shrewd eyes and bright blue eyes.  "Welcome to the least easy class in your college life.  If you choose to beg to differ then you may as well remove yourself out of my class right now because I most certainly do not teach an easy A course!"  No one left.  "Okay then, let's seat you all in alphabetical order so that way I don't have to take up valuable time with roll call."

The class groaned as the professor began directing where each student was going to sit.  Duo, of course, was the last person to be called and got to sit in the last seat of the fourth row of seats.  He felt isolated as he was surrounding by only males.

Now normally Duo wouldn't have minded so much that he was surrounded only male bodies but as he was in disguise as a girl and apparently a couple of the guys sitting by him found him to be an attractive 'woman' Duo could not bring himself to feel safe.  He was only gratified that Robin was sitting kitty-corner from him just in front.

_Saved!_ Duo cheered.

Meanwhile, Heero was sitting in his British Literature class waiting for the professor to arrive.  During the entire waiting period he would have been perfectly satisfied with sitting in the corner, being anti-social as he just glared at the other students.  Apparently fate decided to turn on Heero as Frankie and the klutz from that morning, Ringo, sat down by him.

"Hey Eiji, I didn't know you were taking British Lit too," greeted Frankie, try to start up a conversation.

"Hn," grunted Heero which caused Frankie to raise an eyebrow.  "I mean, yeah.  It was just as big as a surprise for me to find that we were taking the same class," he recovered.  _Must put old habits aside until I can find Relena,_ he told himself sternly.

"Okay, Eiji," Ringo joined in, "so who is your favorite British author?"

Heero thought about it for a second.  He read books, more than one would dare think a Preventer and bodyguard like himself was capable of reading.  There were so many authors and titles that he had read, that it was hard to say his favorite, much less a favorite _British_ author!

"I would have to say Robert Louis Stevenson," grunted Heero.  Normally Heero would have dropped the entire conversation right there and give the two college students a look of indifference, but he was no longer being Heero Yuy, he had to be Eiji Kyosei, so he asked, "What about you two?"

Jason laughed in a thoughtful manner as she brushed aside some of her hair that was hanging in front of her eyes and began to ponder for a moment.  "Well, mine would be a mixture of Daphne du Maurier and T.H. White," she answered with a smile.  "It's hard to choose just one favorite for me."

"I prefer H.G. Wells and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle myself," replied Ringo just before their professor came into the room.  The professor's cheeks were a bright red and his nose pink.

"Hello…erm…everyone!" greeted the professor and Heero rolled his eyes.

_This man is a professor?!  He's drunk!_ Heero noted as the professor started to take roll call, mispronouncing Heero's alias' name, which Heero corrected.  _This is what Relena left for?  To be taught by a drunken professor?  What is this world coming to?_ Heero seriously had to wonder.  _This shall prove to be interesting…_

*****

Hilde didn't wake up until 8 o'clock that morning and her class didn't start until 10 o'clock, so she had about two hours to get ready and get to class.  Getting out of bed Hilde quickly dressed herself in something that she would normally never be caught dead in, a knee-length orange dress with little pink flowers embroided into the fabric.  Standing in front of the full-length mirror that was behind her door, Hilde checked herself out and made a twisted face of disgust.

"I'm going to kill Duo for picking this…this thing out for me," she muttered but stopped when she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway towards her door.  _Watch it Hilde, you shouldn't really be muttering aloud unless you want to make Amy think you are insane, _she advised as she slipped on a pair of sandals.

"Amy is she still asleep?" Hilde heard a voice outside her door inquire in a low voice.

"I do not know, but I'm not going to check on her," Amy replied.

"Why not?" whined the other person.

"Salem, what is your problem?" Amy countered.

_Ah, so it's __Salem__ she's talking to,_ smiled Hilde now having a name to put with the voice.

"Well…" Salem began but then he dropped his voice to a whisper, causing Hilde to be unable to hear anything he said.

"Really?!" Amy spoke up.  "Are you absolutely certain?"

"No, like I said, I'm speculating about this so don't you dare tell Joey, Jason, or Frankie about it or they'll want to know why I'm thinking this," Salem warned.

"Well…" Amy trailed, and then found her words again, "it does sound a little bit outrageous.  I mean really, how would he be able to conceal it...oh shit…"

"What is it?!" Salem questioned earnestly.

"Let's go downstairs," Amy suggested and they both moved away from Hilde's down and stepped down the stairs.

When they were gone Hilde opened her door a little and glanced down the stairs to find Salem and Amy heading into the kitchen.  _What was all that about? _wondered Hilde.  _Do they suspect something of us?  Have Duo or Heero given us away?!  No, that's not likely, so why all this "secretive" theorizing?_

Feeling unnerved by the thought Hilde was tempted to dash back into her room and call up Duo or Heero, but then she remembered that they had classes at the moment, which meant their cell phones would be turned off (Hilde had no scruples for calling up Duo in the middle of meeting so she wouldn't have one about calling him in the middle of class either).

Hilde cussed inwardly as she went back into her room and did a quick combing of her hair, she knew there was a reason why she kept her hair short, it caused less hassle when it came to brushing it.

Done with her grooming Hilde took a deep breath, pulled her shoulders back, stood up straight, and marched out of the room to go downstairs for some breakfast and to make some inquires as to what Salem and Amy had been talking of.  As she went downstairs Hilde felt her Preventer intuition sound off, causing her to abruptly spin around to look down the hall.  It was empty, so why couldn't Hilde shake off the feeling that there was someone there?

Biting her bottom lips Hilde slowly turned back around and continued downstairs, keeping her ears open for any suspicious sounds.  There were none, so Hilde shook off her Preventer intuition and went into the kitchen.

Inside Hilde's room Ricky was climbing in through her open window and glancing around her room.  _This isn't Amy's room,_ he noted as he back to observe the continents that were scattered on the nightstand.  "What do we have here…?" muttered Ricky picking up an identification card.  Examining the plastic card, Ricky raised an eyebrow.

"Really…?" he grinned as he shoved the identification card into his back pocket and proceeded to climb back out through the window.


	7. Zeches' Decision

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

How could he have missed it?!  Well, it was quite easy considering the fact that he had never even heard of Sheboygan until Wufei and Sally had pointed it out to him.  

"Thank you both for your service, I'll head there directly," Zeches announced as he got up to leave the room.

"What are you planning to do there?" Sally inquired with a knowing tone of voice.

Zeches sighed, did he really need to explain himself?  _No, of course not!  It is none of her business what I intend to do once I get there!_ he decided.  "Nothing that you need to be concerned of."

"Are you planning on going to Sheboygan as you are and just expect Relena to throw herself at your crying out, 'Brother, I want to go!'?" Sally inquired in a rather sarcastic manner.  Zeches didn't reply.  "If that is what you are planning on doing then allow me to say this, it most certainly is not going to happen so you can keep dreaming."

"What do you suggest I should do then?" challenged Zeches in his cool manner as he stared her down.

Wufei and Sally exchanged glances for a moment then Wufei answered, "Sally is under the impression that perhaps it would be best to send her and I to Sheboygan, or if you do go by yourself then you should go undercover."

Zeches stared at the two Preventers with suspicious eyes as he glanced back and forth between the two.  Then he raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "I am getting the impression that you two want to go."

Neither of the Preventers flinched or made any movement to prove Zeches right, or wrong for that fact.  "The _woman_ is the one that wants to go," coughed Wufei.

Sally elbowed him in the Chinese side and rolled her eyes.  "Don't lie Wufei, you want to meet up with Relena just as much as I do!" Sally pointed out.

"As much as I love to listen to your little quarrels could you two get to the point of all this?!" interrupted Zeches.  "Why should I send you two to go to Sheboygan rather than go myself?"

Sally glared at Zeches, "Perhaps because we could fit in as college students unlike yourself, you could possibly pass as a Professor but there is no luck of finding a job opening."

The former White Fang leader scoffed, "Either way it will not work, there are no job openings at a college as a professor and it should seem rather odd to have two college students transfer to the same college at the same time.  No, I believe that I shall go to Sheboygan alone and let Une deal with you two."  Sally just shook her head.  "And as for what I intend to do it is for me to know."

With that declaration Zeches left the room and Sally glanced at Wufei.  "Think he'll find her?" she asked.

Wufei just shrugged, "Perhaps, but I shall not put it past Relena to slip through his clutches."

*****

Heero knew it was official, he was now mentally scarred for life after having survived through his first British Literature class.  It was obvious to Heero that the man who the students had to address as "Professor" did not know what he was talking about.  _Even I could teach the class better than him!_ Heero stated as he headed to his next class, Fiction Writing.

Normally Heero was not the type of person to write, especially fiction literature, though his fiction was much better than his poetry…that needed improvement.  Despite having been raised as a soldier Dr. J encouraged Heero to read as much poetry and classic literature as possible, to enlarge his imagination so he could mentally see almost any battle scenario in his mind.

_You drew the shortest pencil, _he reminded himself as he recalled the drawing of straws.

Heero had been busy driving while Hilde and Duo were talking of what college majors they were going to take…

_"Why should I go into business?!  Numbers are such a bore unless they are used in strategic battle," complained Duo._

_"Well, I don't want the business major and there are three subjects that we know for sure that Relena was interested in:  English, music, and business.  Since there are three of us each of us have to take at least  one of these majors," Hilde reasoned._

_"Still, why should I go into business, Heero's more fit for that sort of thing," Duo pouted._

_"Hn," snorted Heero._

_In the back Hilde sighed in exasperation.  "Okay, since we're never going to agree on this let's draw for it."_

_"With what?" questioned Duo.  "We don't have any straws in the car."_

_"I never said straws," Hilde pointed out as she dug through her purse and pulled out two #2 pencils.  She broke one in two, making certain that one half was longer than the other, then she gathered all three pencil parts into her two hands and revealed only the eraser tips.  "The shortest takes English, the next shortest takes business, and the longest takes music.  Agreed?"_

_"Agreed," the boys said._

_Duo reached in back and pulled out the normal pencil, causing him to sit back with a triumphant grin on his features.  Hilde leaned forward to allow Heero easy access to the pencils.  Keeping his eyes on the road Heero grabbed a random pencil and looked at it.  He couldn't tell if he had the shorter one or not._

_"Hilde, hold yours up to mine," Heero commanded.  Without a question Hilde held her pencil up next to Heero's.  Glancing at the pencils Heero knew that Hilde's was about a centimeter longer than his.  "English here I come."_

_Then Heero ran into something…_

Heero stopped his train of thought for a moment.  _I didn't drive into anything,_ he corrected himself.

"Oof!" Heero heard someone moan.  Glancing down Heero saw that he had bumped into someone with black hair and was at the moment tugging a strand of hair behind her ear.  "I'm so sorry," she apologized.

"It's okay," Heero assured causing the girl to look up at him.  _Joey Alley._

"Hey Eiji, where are you heading?" smiled Joey.

"Fiction writing," he grunted.

"You don't sound too thrilled about it," teased Joey as she glanced at her watch.  "Shit, I have to get to my computer science class, so I'll catch you later."

Heero just nodded as he watched Joey brush past him and go on her way.  He had seen this scene many times in movies and read them in books, so was it any coincidence that he allowed his mind to entertain the thought that perhaps Joey was Relena?

_Get to class Heero,_ he commanded himself.

Upon entering his next classroom, Heero was greeted with what seemed to be a scene from most high school movies, paper airplanes flying about, spit balls being thrown into the trash can instead of recycle bin, and a collection of different music being played from the laptops.  Groaning at the immaturity Heero wanted nothing more than to turn around and make a quick escape.  Fate, however, seemed to have other plans.

"What a welcoming sight, eh Eiji?" came a voice from behind Heero.  Spinning around Heero came face to face with Jason and Salem standing behind him with exasperated expressions on their faces.

"If this is what you prefer to see in a college surrounding," Heero shrugged.

"True," Salem agreed, "very true but can we get into the classroom and into some seats before the Prof comes?"

The three of them sat down by each other and pulled out their laptops and booted their computers.  Jason, who was sitting on the end, checked her e-mail once she had her computer working and on the internet-through her cell phone.  What she read in an e-mail from Ricky caused her to raise an eyebrow and smile in amusement.

_Really…_ was all Jason thought before the Professor entered the room while quoting Shakespeare.  


	8. Comparing Notes

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

By the time that Duo had gotten back to Bobby's house from college, by 1:00 pm, he knew that something was different, really different.  It started when he greeted Bobby and Bobby just gave him an up and down look before an amuse smile crossed his face.

That was just the start of it, the next odd thing to happen was while Duo was strolling down the street in search of something to do to keep him from boredom; he passed by two gossiping girls who shot him a glance then turned away and giggled.  At first Duo thought they were laughing at something about his attire but when he stopped in front of a store window to have a look at himself he found nothing wrong with his clothes.

The final oddity of the day was when Salem had approached Duo while he was drinking a chilled apple cider at a small café observing the residents from behind his darkly tinted sunglasses.  "Hey," greeted the kid.

"Hey," returned Duo putting on his 'Selfie voice'.

"May I sit down?" Salem inquired.  Duo just gestured to the chair beside him and Salem sat down upon it with a very nervous expression.  Obviously the kid wanted to talk or tell Duo-Selfie-something.  "Um…I just wanted to let you know that I admire you."

At that moment Duo had been sipping his apple cider, only to end up choking on it to keep from spraying the drink all over the café table and Salem.  "What?" Duo coughed, forgetting about his alter ego's voice.

"I admire you," Salem repeated as he looked out the window and saw someone, who appeared to be Ricky waving him to come outside.  "Pardon me," he implored Duo before leaving the former gundam pilot to his own thoughts.

_Admire?!_ Scoffed Duo as he was headed up the stairs of the Collins' house to Heero's room. _What the hell could he have been talking about?  What is it about me that he should ad…mi…re?_  Realization hit Duo at that point in his train of thought, causing him to glance down at his disguise.  _Oh God, he means he's attracted to me!  Ew, gross!_

Granted Duo was fine when other men 'admired' him as a _man_ but to have guy 'admire' as a 'woman' was a completely different story.  It felt very uncomfortable, and didn't settle very well with Duo.  The very thought of Salem like-liking him was enough to make Duo quicken his pace up the stairs to Heero's room/attic.

When he opened the door and dashed up the stairs Duo was greeted with the sight of Heero keeping watch at the window and Hilde lying out on the bed, kicking her legs back and forth.

"Hey, has anyone been acting weird towards you two at all today?" Duo inquired quickly, he desperately wanted to be assured that he wasn't being singled out or becoming paranoid.

"Duo, we're here to exchange theories and suspicions," reminded Heero in his 'no nonsense, all business' tone of voice.

"I realize that, Heero, but…" Duo paused for a moment as a sense that someone might accidentally overhear them if he didn't restrain his volume, "people have been acting very strangely towards me today, ever since Music History class."

"No surprise there," laughed Hilde and Heero just snorted his agreement.  This just rubbed Duo the wrong way, causing him to glare his rare death glares that could possibly match the intensity of Heero's normal death glares.  It made Hilde stop rolling in laughter at least.

"No, really, really weird behavior.  Like Salem, he just told me that he admires _me_!" Duo explained.

"Perhaps he's attracted to _Selfie_," suggested Heero in a voice that clearly said that he found no point to this conversation.

"That's what I think too but there were some _girls_ who were giggling at me, how do you explain that?" challenged Duo crossing his arms over his fake breast.

"Your masculine legs or panty lines," Heero offered as he scrutinized Duo's appearance.

"I have panty lines?!" shrieked Duo turning around to see if it was true, but to no avail.  Instead he succeeded in circling in the same spot about nine times before Hilde stood up and approached him.

"Hold still," she commanded as she grabbed hold of Duo's shoulders and was observing his backside of his attire.

"Well?  Well?!" urged Duo impatiently.

"Straighten up," she ordered.  "Thank you."  Smoothing out Duo's skirt Hilde took a step back and analyzed the outward appearance of Duo's butt.  "Oh yeah, major panty lines!" she exclaimed after five painful minutes.  "Are you wearing shorts or a slip under this?"

"NO!" Duo shouted but blushed at his pathetic mistake.

"Well, do that next time, or wear a thong," advised Hilde.

To the suggestion of a thong Duo's face flushed red and twisted into a complexion of horror and disgust.  "No way, You can't expect me to go parading around with a _thong_ on!  I'm a guy!" protested Duo.

"That's rather questionable," snorted Heero from his window place.

"_Excuse _me?!" 

The door opened and trotting up the stairs was Jason.  "Hey Eiji," she started to say before taking in the sight of Heero having friends over.  "Oh, I didn't know you had friends over."

She glanced at Duo and tried to bite back a laughing smile that threatened to cross her features, but to no avail.

"I'm off to work, you're on your own for dinner tonight.  Okay?" Jason informed Heero.

"Hn," was Heero's answer, he had to provide himself food on more than one occasion in the past.

Satisfied with the answer Jason bounded down the stairs, stopping once to throw Duo one last laughing sort of glance.  Noting the glance sent shivers down Duo's spine, and shivers weren't good.  That much he had learned from past experiences.

"Please tell me you noticed that," implored Duo still under the impression that his comrades might think him paranoid and insane.

"Notice what?" Hilde questioned.

"Indeed, Maxwell, it was strange but nothing to be concerned about," Heero shrugged.  Well, at least Duo knew he wasn't the _only_ person to notice Jason's laughing eyes that were placed on _him_; not Heero, not Hilde, _him_!

"Whatever," scoffed Duo as he rolled his eyes.  'Nothing to be concerned about', he begged to differ, but than again no one really listened to Duo Maxwell.  "Anyone besides me think this place is insane?" he inquired out of the blue.

"_That's_ an understatement," snorted Hilde while Heero just made an affirmative sound.  "But that's beside the point.  We should list and compare who's all in our classes and see who has all three of these subjects as some sort of a major or minor."

Receiving no arguments Hilde pulled out a notepad and pen from her coat that hung forlornly on Heero's bed.  "Let's start with you Duo," she stated.

"Well, in composition I have Robin Shelly and Jason Collins; in theory I have April Ash, Robin, and Amy Johnson; and in history there's Jason and April," Duo listed as he checked them off on his fingers and mentally reviewed his list.  "Yeah, that's about all that I recognized."

"Heero?"

"British Lit there's Francis Shelly and Ringo Raccoon; fiction writing was with Jason and Salem Alley; and perspective writing had Robin, Ringo, and Kaitlyn," Heero automatically told Hilde without having to think about names for a moment.

"Well," Hilde began as she finished her scribbling, "none of us have anyone for all three classes.  For I have only Vicky Wickham-oh wait-sorry that's Wickgram."

"Wickgram?" Duo asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"She corrected me and almost everyone else every time someone called her Wickham," Hilde explained as she rolled her eyes.  "Then there was also Jake Cros and Kaitlyn Alley.  Slim pickings for business classes unfortunately."

"She must have dropped a subject, the question is which one?" Heero voiced the question everyone knew was coming.

"Well, I don't know about you two but my money's on Jason.  She has none of the classic, prim, pampered Relena in her which makes sense if Relena is trying to elude us again," Duo sighed.  Square one sucked.

"I was leaning towards April or Vicky almost, personally," admitted Hilde as she flipped the notepad closed and put it away.  "Though, I can see Jason as a reasonable guess, I suppose.  What do you think Heero?"

Heero turned to them with his poker face.  "I think that assumptions lead to mistakes in this matter.  We should not underestimate Relena this time, otherwise she'll surely run off again."

"True," groaned Duo as he sat down on the bed.  "So then now it's up to instinct and to some miracle of God to have Relena slip up and expose herself to us."

"Exactly."


	9. Truth in the Stares

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

Absently he drummed his fingers on his desk while pretending to read the report that was in his hands.  Luckily he was in the room alone and no one was there to witness Quatre Winner slacking off when he should be working, but, by Jove, it was hard when his mind kept wandering off on its own accord.

It had been-what?-six weeks since he saw Relena, walked with Relena, even talked to Relena but his mind was still not calm.  No, instead his mind was actually thinking of all sorts of scenarios that might have happened to Relena to prevent her calling him in the last weeks.  None of the thoughts were very pleasant.

At least he knew that the Preventers had not gotten to her, if they had it would have been in the media in 10 seconds.  So where was she and why hadn't she called him?!

The phone rang, startling Quatre out of his thoughts to the extent that he threw the report papers across his desk, covering the phone.  Regaining his composure the young representative leafed through the papers as the phone rang a second time.  

"Coming," he muttered as he found his buried phone and answered it, figuring it to be Ms. Jennings, his secretary, or Rashid.  "Quatre Rabera Winner speaking."

"Do you feel that you must let people know your middle name?" came a laughing voice on the other end.

Quatre practically dropped the phone at the same time his jaw dropped to his desk.  His prayers have been answered, there was a higher being!

"For your information, no, it's just out of habit," he stated matter-of-factly as he leaned back with cat like smile on his features.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the voice laughed.

"Nah, I was just packing up to go home for the night," Quatre lied as he eyed the reports.  "Heard you narrowly escaped the Preventers, Relena."

There was a slight pause on the other side of the phone.  "How did you find that out?" she inquired and Quatre could have sworn he felt her smile at him in that challenging manner he learned at Six Flags that she had attained.

"Oh a little birdie told me," he teased as he put his feet on his desk.

"Oh, and would this "little birdie" happened to be a piece of paper with lots of typing all over it?" she asked.

"As a matter of record, yes and no.  I have a report of it, I being your friend after all Une sent me a copy of Heero, Duo, and Hilde's reports, but I also heard it from Duo over the phone.

"I see."  There was another pause.  "Well, I did escape, but not necessarily narrowly," she boasted.  "It was all a matter of timing and deception."

"So you were Salimar all a long, I had my money on Lynn," Quatre told her honestly.

"I think most people did, but that was the plan.  To confuse you all," Relena told him.

"Ah.  So how have you been?  Back into a college at all?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I'm back in a college and I'm enjoying myself tremendously Quat," she told him in a louder voice.

"Who's there Relena?" Quatre whispered as he knew that Relena never _ever_ called him 'Quat' especially since she knew he hated that nickname since it sounded more like the female name 'Kat'.

"Sorry, it was just some new college kid," she told him returning back to her normal tone.

"A college kid?  Friend of yours?"  There was a little queasy feeling in Quatre's stomach and he felt a little envious of that college kid for evening within Relena's company, even if he or she didn't know it.

"No, not a friend of mine," she stated.  "Hey Quatre, can you access the Preventer files for employees?"

"Yeah, I have clearance for it but by the tone of your voice I would want to cover my tracks as best as I can," nodded Quatre, tossing his feet off his desk and propping his elbows on it instead.

"Would you check what Heero's activities are for me?" she implored.

"Do you think he's there with you or something?" Quatre questioned.

"I don't know but if he is he's keeping a low profile and I just want to be careful.  So can you do this for me, _please_?!" she replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I can have the information you need in a couple of weeks, maybe earlier," Quatre shrugged.  He heard her sigh in relief on the other side of the phone and his heart raced, he would be of service to Relena in any way that he could if it would make her happy.

"Okay, I'll call you back in a week okay?" she told him.

"It's a date," he agreed about to hang up.

"Hey Quatre," he quickly brought the phone back up to his ear, "do you have anything planned for May 20, it's a Saturday?"

"Uh…" desperately Quatre searched his desk for his weekly planner underneath all the reports and other miscellaneous papers.  It took him a total of three minutes to find it, but he did find it.  Quickly he flipped through the book to the day, May 20th, AC 199 was blank.  Good.  "No, nothing's in it at the moment.  Why?"

_Please let her say that she'll meet me again.  Please let her say that she'll meet me again.  Please let her say…_ chanted Quatre, holding his breath.

"Well, how do you feel about flying down the Philadelphia for a day?" she teased.

"Depends what I'm flying there for."

"Well there's a convention there, Wizard World, and I was wondering if you wanted to go there with me," she told him.

His heart stopped, he was sure of it!  It had to be his lucky day, a call from Relena, a talk with her, and now a chance to see her again, what more could Quatre have asked for?!

"Most certainly," he assured her.

"Great!" she cheered but there was a voice in the background calling out to her to get off the phone.  "Hold your pants up Salem I'm getting off.  I got to go, I'll call you in a week."

"Can't wait."  It was true he couldn't.

"Bye Quatre."

"Bye Relena."  Next thing Quatre heard was the dial tone as he sat back and dropped the phone to the floor.

Was a week over yet?

*****

This sucked, royally, in Duo's opinion.  Apparently the town was one of those small towns where everyone knew each other, everyone was friends and if any two people were enemies they were on civil terms, and there was a lot of going over to other people's houses for dinner.  So Duo and Bobby ended up dinning with the Alley's along with Shelly's.

Now this was not what bothered Duo.  No, it was at the dinner table when he found out he was seated between Joey and Robyn with Salem right across from him and kept sending Duo winks, encouraging smiles, and glances.  Gorgeous temptation to the right, cool guy to the left, and weird, possibly homosexual guy in front, it was enough to drive Duo to insanity.

While playing with his food Duo glanced at Bobby, whose hand was reaching out to touch the candle center piece until Bobby slapped it away.  The scene caused Duo to raise an eyebrow.  In comparison Duo felt that he was at least saner than Bobby or half the people at the table, especially the so-called adults who were currently having a debate over the correct plural word for goose; gooses vs. geese.

Apparently his lost appetite was noticed for Robyn nudged him a bit to gauge his attention.

"You going to eat or are you just going to sit there and play with healthy food?" he asked him.

"Oh…uh…" Duo started as he looked down at his chicken, rice, and corn.  He didn't particularly like corn to be quite honest but he loved chicken.  "Yeah."

"Good."  His eyes were quickly averted back to his own plate which made Duo quite exasperated.

"Robyn, why are people looking at me as though I just grew a new head?" he inquired.  _I know for a fact it's not the panty lines this time since I'm wearing shorts under this dress,_ Duo thought as he noticed Frankie's laughing eyes and Kaitlyn's amused stare.

"Do I look at you strangely?" Robyn asked.

Duo gave her a look that simply stated 'yeah!'.  "Almost everyone has throughout today," he told him.

"Well that's because…" began Robyn before stopping, possibly thinking of how he should word his explanation.  "How long have you been doing this?"

Not the answer Duo wanted and it certainly didn't answer his question.  "Doing what?" he urged with a quizzical expression.  What was it that he was doing?!  Eating?  Sitting?  Talking?

"You know."  No, Duo didn't know so he shook his head.  "Cross-dressing," Robyn elaborated.

Time froze for Duo but everything else seemed to going as normal behind him.  How did he-they-know?!  How did they find out?!  Did they also know he was a former Preventer?!

"I take it you haven't been doing this long," Robyn assumed with a grin.

"H…how d…did y…you figure it out?" stammered Duo, still in a state of shock.

"Let's just say this, any information that lies about and is found will not be kept silent for long," he winked.  "Plus, you are the second worst cross dresser I've ever met."

"Who was the first?" Duo questioned.  He was a horrible cross dresser and yet there was at least another who was even worse than him out there in the world.  Who could this person be?  He had to know.

"Salem."

For the second time that day Duo was stunned into silence and left with his eyes wide and mouth flopping up and down, forming soundless words.

Noticing his surprise Robyn nodded, "Yeah, he tried it out back in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, but then gave it up when Amy moved in and when the school was having problems trying to decide if he should go into the girls' locker room or the boys' for gym."

"Are you serious?!" gasped Duo, regaining his ability to form words with sound.  Taking a glance across the table at Salem who was busy speaking with Bobby and trying to keep the latter's hand from the candle.  Duo could never imagine him as a girl.

"Completely and utterly," assured Robyn.

_Duo, you are the only really sane person here at the dinner table right now.  May God or any other higher power that be, help you!_


	10. Great Escape

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

"Looping starts…now," she muttered as the images on the cameras shifted to the 'For Rel' group sitting in their little room quietly, just staring off into space instead of the real image, Adam singing off key and Lynn pacing around.  "Alright, guys let's do this," she told them through the speaker phone that was connected to the room.

She could just imagine the commotion this whole fresco would cause throughout the entire Preventer Headquarters, not to mention the entire Preventer system.  Just the thought of it brought a rueful smirk to her face.  She was, after all, a master of disguise since she had learned from one of the best, Relena Salimar Darlian-Peacecraft.

"Available assistance needed on the fifth floor by holding room number 315, there is a fight taking place between two of the suspects," she radioed in while heading down the hallway to catch the first two Preventers to arrive.

**

"This is the song that never ends!  Yes, it goes on and on my friends!  Some people started singing it not knowing what it was and they'll continue singing it because…this is the song that never ends!" sang Adam off-key while knocking his knuckles against the table.

Pacing behind him, Draca massaged her temples to rid herself of the odious headache she was suffering through due to Adam's never-ending singing.  This was the last straw, one can only hear "The Song that Never Ends" so many times before it becomes annoying, and it was beyond annoying to Draca.  Never having been one to handle annoyance well, Draca did the one thing that she had wanted to do for the last twenty minutes; she smacked Adam in the back of his head.

"Hey, is that anyway to 'love thy neighbor'?!" cried Adam, rubbing the back of his head.

"You deserved it, and more," snorted Sage.

"Shut up Draca lover, no one asked _you_!" Adam snapped back.

"What did you just call me?!" demanded Sage, pushing himself off the wall and approaching Adam threateningly.  "I dare you to call me that again, homo."

"Are you _trying_ to get me pissed, _Draca-lover_?!" challenged Adam, his normal care-free smile having vanished from his features only to be replaced by a cold stare.

"You asshole!"  Sage pushed Adam to the floor causing him to land hard on the back of his head and back, since Adam was still sitting in the chair.  In return Adam kicked his brother in the stomach to give him more time to get up from his sprawled position on the floor.

"I don't want to get into this with you man," Adam warned as he rolled up his sleeves.

"Oh," smirked Sage as he got up, "but I do."  Both boys charged at each other at the same time and began to wrestle with one another; tearing at each others' shirts, twisting the others' arm, getting the other into a headlock, one being kicked in the groin, ect.

While this all went on inside the room, Jose from the classified division stood outside the door debating on whether to call for immediate back-up or to wait for two or more other Preventers to arrive.   He, thankfully, didn't have to wait long before the latter of the two to happen.  Bounding around the corner came Daniel from ballistics and Shun-li from Une's Secretarial Offices.

"What's the situation?!" Shun-li yelled as she ran up and peaked into the room through the small, clear plastic window.

"Two males fighting, ma'am," reported Jose as the table in the room broke causing all three Preventers to grimace in sympathy towards the person that hit the table.

"Why haven't you tried to put a stop to it?!" Daniel demanded.

"There are four people in the room, I couldn't separate the men without the women potentially escaping or even one of the men turning his aggression on me then having all four witnesses escape," Jose defended.

Daniel nodded his understanding agreement.  "Well, there're three of us now," he stated, taking immediate leadership of the situation.  "Shun-li, you handled the girls, don't let even one of them slip past you!"

"Understood," assured Shun-li, cocking her pistol.

"Good.  We're taking the men," Daniel informed Jose, who just nodded, liking this plan.  "On three, one…two…three!"

All at once the two male Preventers burst into the room and proceeded to try to separate Adam and Sage from each other while Shun-li kept Draca and Lynn at bay with her ready pistol.

"That's enough outta you two," Daniel growled as he yanked Sage off of his brother and pushing him back.

At the same time Jose was literally holding Adam back, which wasn't as easy as one would think.  Adam could really struggle and was rather strong when he had to be.

"Bastard!" spat Sage over Daniel's shoulder.

"Say what you like, I was only saying the truth!" Adam retorted.  Right before his eyes, Jose saw Adam's expression go from one of aggressive rage to one of over-confident, "fooled you".  It made Jose raise his eyebrows until he felt something smack into the back of his head, hard.

Immediately Jose fell unconscious and to the floor with a THUD!  The noise caused Daniel to turn fully around in surprise, but what he saw was even more surprising; Shun-li standing over Jose with her pistol in hand.

Daniel reach for his side to pull out his firearm only to be whacked across the back of his head and into the wall by Sage's hands clamped together into one giant fist.

"Nice job," complimented Shun-li with a teasing smile.

"Ow!  That hurt!!" shouted Sage shaking out his hands.  "I think I just broke my hands."

"Stop being a whiner, let's jet," sighed Draca as she glanced down the hallways both ways.  "Hurry it up with those uniforms."

*****

There he was again, in the same British Literature class waiting for the same drunk teacher to appear to bore him into oblivion when he would rather be at his one room apartment on L-1 hacking into every "difficult" system he knew.  But no, Heero couldn't do that, especially since he was not on L-1.

"So Eiji, you planning on joining us for the dinner tomorrow night?" Ringo asked taking a seat in the desk beside Heero.

"Dinner?" Heero inquired.  There was a dinner thing he was supposed to go to?  Why was he not informed about it?

"Yeah tomorrow," Ringo nodded.

No change on Heero's face.

"On the street," Ringo added.

Still no change.

"The neighborhood weekly dinner," he finished in the hope that would jolt Eiji's memory.

Heero still had no idea what the college student was talking about.  A weekly neighborhood dinner?  When was he supposed to have been told about this?!  Sometime before the present obviously, but he hadn't.

"Enlighten me," Heero replied.

"Ah!  Jason didn't tell you!" groaned Ringo.  "Well, every weekend, and I mean every, goes like this:  Friday, everyone joins in for a huge cook out in the community, preferably in the middle of the street to block traffic.  Saturday night, movie night at someone's house, bring any and every movie, we watch them all.  Here's a tip though, don't bring something like "Voyager VI" along."

Oh, so that was the whole "neighborhood weekly dinner" thing that Heero was supposed to have known about.  Now it was all clear to him.

"So, are you coming?" Ringo inquired.

"Do I have a choice?" Heero returned half hoping for a positive answer so that he may lock himself up in his attic-room and observe everyone below.

Ringo grinner, which told Heero his answer, "No, but you're not going to be a stump, are you?"

"Hn."  _Depends on your definition of a "stump"._

"If you are then I'll make sure that Jason or someone comes to torture you into being cordial," threatened Ringo.

Heero just rolled his eyes at the lame threat.  He was a soldier, he had been threatened with worse things than a couple of girls-or guys-forcing him to be socialable when he didn't want to.  It would be just like one of those pathetic assemblies and charities that Relena would have to go to once in a while, just without the whole dressiness, and without Relena being the center of attention.

_Or maybe she will be the center of attention,_ Heero thought.

Interrupting his thoughts was the opening of the doors that announced the arrival of their late professor.

"I'll just stay here by you then," decided Ringo slouching in his seat.

In his seat, Heero braced himself for the drunken professor he had met the last two times he had this class.  Instead of the short man with the permanent pink nose and red cheeks entering the room, it was a young man that was completely sober and in control.

Sitting in his seat Heero squinted at the person who held a keen similarity to someone that Heero couldn't quite place his finger on.  _Take away the black hair, give it some length, and give him a red uniform instead of that suit and he would be…SHIT!  That's Zeches!_


	11. Professor Nottingham

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

Why was he there? Him, of all people, working as a British Literature Professor?! Heero couldn't make sense out of it, but he was supremely grateful for his orange hair and his anti-social status since it kept him out of the teacher's sight.

"Morning class, I'm have the unfortunate task of informing you," began Zeches.

Did Heero just snort? Aloud? He didn't think so but with Ringo's querying look it seemed that he did.

"That Professor Prom will no longer be teaching this class. Instead, I am your new British Literature teacher," Zeches finished announcing.

It was apparent that it was no major loss to the class but the students kept their unholy glee contained through clenched teeth and held back smiles. Even Heero felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards.

"I am Professor Nottingham," lied Zeches as he began writing on the board. "And we are going to start this class anew."

Lots of groans were heard but also a lot of positive cheers. Heero personally was grateful; he did not want to write a report about the stapler for next Monday.

"Michael's the best character on the show!" Jake argued.

"Please! Michael?! The dude doesn't even have a chance but he's too stupid to realize that!" protested Salem. "That's what makes him such a weak, non-confident character, and completely useless might I add."

"How long has this been going on?" Hilde inquired as she joined the group at the ever-growing table in a café a block away from campus.

Vicki turned to her in surprise. "Oh hey, when did you join us?"

"Just now. How long has this been going on?" she repeated.

"For the last ten minutes and still counting," Jason answered as she glanced over her shoulder. "Whoever decided to bring up the topic of 'Brilliant Fools' should be shot, hanged, beaten with a chain, or paraded around town naked."

"You forgot tarred and feathered," joked Vicki.

"That too," nodded Robin casting a glance over at Eiji, who had been sitting by himself ever since he got there and was just content with sipping his black coffee while watching them. "Does your friend over there have a problem with talking with other people? Or does he like living like the Phantom of the Opera, no offense to Erik?"

Hilde looked over her shoulder at Heero; he just glared at her, and then replied, "He just doesn't like crowds. He has panic attacks and such with groups of people he doesn't know intimately."

"Oh? Well, that doesn't speak much for prosperity now, does it? Especially with this weekend's dinner and movie night," Jason commented. "Perhaps one of us should go over and talk to him."

"What about you?" Vicki suggested.

Jason just gave her a look. "How about you? I live in the same house as him and I can 'get to know him', in a nonsexual way, on my own accord," she countered.

"Sorry Jason, but whatever you planned to do with Vicki has to be temporarily postponed for I so need her to back me up on this one," Jake interrupted, grabbing Vicki's hand and pulling her into the debate about everyone's favorite comedy-romance television show.

"Well then that leaves you Robin," Jason determined causing Robin to choke satisfyingly on his Chai Iced Latte.

"Beg your pardon, are you talking to me?" Robin coughed, putting on a very false British accent.

Hilde had to bite back a laugh, the accent did not sound right. It was amusing to watch these people talk their way out of getting to talk with Heero but at the same time Hilde realized that Heero was still giving off his normal impression of 'leave me alone if you want to live'.

"Maybe no one should talk with him, he seems to have a lot on his mind," Hilde spoke up as she looked more closely at Heero's expression. He had his brows furrowed together in deep concentration, and was swirling his coffee in his hand rather than setting it down and drinking it. He obviously had something on his mind.

Both college kids looked at her, Jason in disbelief and Robin in relief.

"I believe it," nodded Frankie as she joined the group, hanging on her cousin's shoulder. "We got a new Brit. Lit. Prof and he is a work of art. So strict, but in a good way. You get to see him tomorrow cuz."

"That's very comforting," mumbled Robin with much _enthusiasm._ "Who is he?"

_Yes, who is this Professor,_ Hilde urged mentally. She was intrigued by this teacher who could put Heero into his despondent mood.

"A Professor Nottingham," shrugged Frankie.

"Nottingham?" Jason echoed. "Real classic name, I like it."

"I love it," commented Robin with sarcasm.

"I'm going to go talk to Eiji," Hilde told them. "See what's really up with him."

"Okay, see you later then," waved Jason. The cousins nodded, Frankie with a foam mustache and Robin while slurping up more latte.

Hilde approached Heero and immediately took the seat right across from him; there was no need to ask if the seat was taken because it was never taken. Besides, if Hilde had asked permission to sit down Heero would have either not heard or just shrugged.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Hn."

"Really? Same here." Silence as Hilde glanced around the café. "Some of the girls, and guy, were talking about you. They were wondering why you were so down and being so anti-social," Hilde continued offhandedly.

"Hn."

"Yeah, then I found out that you got a new British Lit. professor. A Professor Nottingham," Hilde replied, noting the slight twitch of Heero's eyebrows. She had his interest now. "Who is this Professor Nottingham?"

For the first time since he got his mug of coffee, Heero placed it on the table. "It's Zeches," he plainly told her in a low voice.

"What? Your thoughts are on Zeches? Whatever for?" questioned Hilde.

Heero resisted the urge to bang her head into the table. "No, _Professor Nottingham_ and Zeches are one and the same person," he explained.

If there was one thing that did come from this worthless conversation it was the sight of Hilde's jaw dropping and her spilling her coffee all over the floor. Heero found that at least mildly amusing, so it was worth something taking note of.

"Excuse me I think I had a bit of wax in my ear, what was that?" she inquired as she cleaned tried in vain to clean up the coffee mess.

"Zeches is here and he is my Professor," Heero stated in simpler terms.

"Did he recognize you?" whispered Hilde getting back up onto her chair.

He just shrugged.

"How do you know it's him?" Hilde asked now becoming a skeptic.

"You know how good Maxwell is at annoying people?" Heero smirked.

Hilde rolled her eyes and grinned, "Who doesn't?"

"That's how horrible Zeches is at disguises," Heero told her.

"Oh…" There was another moment of silence. "What are we going to do about it?"

Heero sipped his coffee and gazed at Hilde above the rim of the mug. Taking a long moment, Heero set the mug back down and leaned forward a bit. "Absolutely nothing."

In case any of you didn't know, Erik is 'The Phantom of the Opera'.


	12. Friends?

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

With it being Friday evening Heero was doing his best to avoid the crowd in the street outside, he was doing this avoidance by tapping on laptop.  However, his antisocial ness didn't go unnoticed for long.  

"Eiji?" came a voice followed by the tell-tale sounds of a footsteps bounding up the first staircase then his.

Jason's head peered from the stairway.  "Eiji, oh, there you are!" she smiled.  "Come on down, your friends are out and waiting for you to join in."

"What friends?" he replied.  The last time he had checked he didn't have any friends, comrades, yes, but no friends really.

At his question Jason just rolled her eyes.  "Mindy and Selfie you pimp.  Now come on before I sic my dad on you," urged Jason heading back down the stairs.

_Friends…_Wasn't there a time when Relena had said something like that to him?

_"Do you treat all your friends like that?" Relena asked him while they were in Heero's car, one of the most well protected vehicles the Vice-Foreign Minister could be in._

_Heero had just complete ignored Duo in his usual indifferent manner when exiting Relena's hotel and it seemed that Relena was bothered by it.  Though why, he had no idea since it wasn't the first time Relena had seen Heero treat Duo like that._

_"Like what?" Heero inquired._

_"With that cold silence act," Relena elaborated, leaning her head against the window._

Thinking back on that day, Heero noticed that Relena looked rather pretty even though there were signs of sleep deprivation around her eyes.  She had looked more like a woman than just some official he had promised to protect.

_"How can I when I have no friends?" Heero had answered his employer's question._

_Her eyes closed as though in pain and sighed, "Maybe that is because you don't consider those of us around you as friends."_

She was right, he never considered anyone to actually be his friend, not even Relena.  _How in the world did you ever get Sylvia as your girlfriend?_ he asked himself.  _Perhaps you should stop looking for Relena…_The thought was quickly pushed aside.  _I made a promise and I'm sticking to it!_

Closing his laptop Heero got off his bed, went down the stairs, and out of the house only to see that Jason had lied.  Duo and Hilde were not out there waiting for him.  No, Duo was busy talking animatedly with Jake and Kaitlyn while Hilde and Amy were trying to keep Bobby from putting his hand into the fire grilling the hot dogs.

With a shrug Heero went to the one place where he could sit without seeming to be antisocial while not talking.  He plopped himself down on a porch with one of the college kids, Warren, as his only companion.  Both just exchanged glances and that was all.

"Someone should go talk to them," Jason stated to her small posse of friends while she eyed the only two social outcasts, Warren and Eiji.

"Let's send Joey over," suggested Frankie with wink while she drank her bottle of Root Beer.

Jason and Vicki both gave her a warning look.  "That will promise only a fight between her and Warren, and you know that, _Francis_," Jason replied with an edge to her tone.

"An interesting fight at that," grinned Frankie.

"How about no fights for once," recommended Vicki.  "There's one almost every weekend as it is so let's break tradition for once."

"Okay, I was only joking anyways," Frankie nodded.

"Vicki, who should we send over to keep those antisocial boys company?" Jason asked as she rolled her eyes at the tomboy of the group.

"I'll go," volunteered Vicki, "but I'm taking Robin with me for protection."  She grabs two Pepsi bottles in one hand and then reaches behind Jason, grabbing Robin's arm and leading him towards the aforementioned boys.

Frankie snorted at the 'protection' line.  "Have fun!" she called out when Robin turned to give her a 'help me' look.

Heero had been observing the girls little talk and only caught a little of what they said due to his lip reading skills, but when he saw Vicki and Robin approach them he knew what was going on.  They were coming to 'chat'.

"Hey boys, watch are you doing?" Vicki greeted, dropping Robin's arm and handing Warren a bottle of Pepsi.

Taking the bottle Warren retorted, "Sitting."

"Sounds like fun, I'll join you and watch everyone else," Robin commented, situating himself between the other men.

Vicki pouted, it was obviously not what she wanted to happen.  "That's not fun!  Come on Warren, let's go mingle," she urged as she snatched Warren's free hand and began dragging him towards the mob of people.

"Vicki!" called out Robin but it was no use, Vicki just ignored him.  "So, Eiji, what's with the antisocial mood?  Are we not 'cool' enough for you or something?"

"Hn."

Robin glared at him from the corner of his eyes.  "Keep doing that and I'll take the 'hn' as a 'yes' all the time," warned Robin, leaving any humor behind.

The threat didn't bother Heero one bit.  "You're the third person to threaten that," Heero told him.

"Good, someone should," remarked Robin taking a sip of his Coke bottle then wiping the corners of his mouth with his sleeve.  "Who are the others?"

"Selfie and a girl I knew," replied Heero not wanting to discuss the topic any further.

"Girlfriend?"

Heero glared at him, clearly stating no.

"Good point," continued Robin as though Heero had just replied verbally, "a girl would obviously have to put up a lot of shit to be your girl."  There was a hint of laughter twisted with meaning.  It was clear enough to Heero that Robin was trying to convey that he thought Heero to be an impossible kind of guy, and maybe it was true.

Even if it was or not true, Heero still raised an eyebrow.  "Why's that?"  Directness always worked best for Heero rather than beating around the bush for answers.

"You're antisocial, you reply in minimum words, and your favorite phrase is 'hn'," listed Robin.  "Plus you clearly have no idea how to act around people of your own age group, which kind of makes me wonder if you were in the military at all."

"You depicted that much?" Heero inquired refusing to reply to the military portion.

"Kind of hard not to get that kind of an impression about you.  Anyways, that's how Frankie described you as, not I," he corrected offering his soda to Heero.

"Hn," grunted Heero only to have the soda forced into his face.

"Yeah, I figured you wanted to know that and to have a sip of soda," Robin said.

Heero glared at the kid, he hadn't said anything and he certainly didn't want any soda, especially not Coke.  So naturally he pushed the bottle away from him.

"You said yes," grinned Robin as he cocked his head at Heero.

For a moment Heero was mesmerized but then he just rolled his eyes and groaned, "You are annoying for a guy."

At this insult Robin laughed, "Same could be said about you, you have the personality of a _stump_."  There were glares from both sides of this conversation and they were equally matched, except that Heero's looked as though he could freeze fire.  "So, about this girl…" spoke up Robin starring-no longer glaring-into Heero's eyes, "who is she?"

Heero stiffened.  He really didn't want to talk about Relena, especially not to someone who could possibly be a friend of hers.  "None of your business," snapped Heero.

"Girlfriend huh," he simply stated.

"Why do you keep assuming that?!" demanded Heero, annoyance lacing his voice.

Robin's eyes widened for a moment before he questioned back, "Why are _you_ so reluctant to talk about her?  If you're so unwilling to share the tale than what other suggestion is there other than that she was an old flame of yours."

"It's in the past," Heero muttered, keeping his eyes away from Robin's.

"Well, it obviously affects you even now, so tell me the story," insisted Robin

With a slow sigh Heero began is revised-very revised-tale of Relena.  "She was a girl I knew, _not_ exactly a friend or a significant other, and I was very protective of her since she was very naïve.  One day, she changed-grew up I suppose-and became someone I didn't know," Heero explained leaving out some 'minor' details.

"So you ran from her?" Robin pressed.

Heero shook his head.  Of course he didn't run from her, he was the one chasing after her!  "No, she ran and I didn't follow," lied Heero, he was following her trail whenever he could find it.

"Did you love her?"

Love?  The idea had been pronounced a few times by Duo, even Noin sometimes, but Heero always brushed it aside.  How could he have been in love with Relena when he was the perfect soldier, a soldier with no emotions?  He could never have been in love with her.

"No."

Robin swallowed hard, obviously thinking hard about the wording of his next question.  "Then why do you look like someone just died?"

There was no answer, and there would never be an answer until Heero figured it out for himself.

However, Heero was spared of doing so when a voice requested, "Excuse me miss, but may I have a word with him…"

Surprised by the voice both Heero and Robin looked at each other then up at the person.  It was Zeches-Mr. Nottingham-towering over them with his commanding air that demanded to be obeyed.

"To whom are you calling 'miss'?  Last time I checked we were 'sirs'," Robin pointed out, keeping back his sarcasm as best as he could, but it was in vain.

"Sorry," apologized Zeches, matching Robin's tone.  "Dude, go away so I can talk to him," he indicated to Heero.

With a glance at Heero Robin got up and shrugged, "Sure thing, _dude_, since you're _rude_ enough.  Check you later Eiji."  With one last icy glare, that almost surprised Heero, Robin marched back to the crowd to rejoin Joey's social group.

Once Robin was out of earshot Zeches turned back to Heero with an amused smirk on his features.  "Never would have thought you'd go for orange, Heero."


	13. To Dance

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

"Trowa," Catherine spoke up, disturbing the awkward silence that was between them.

The man at the driving wheel made a noise of acknowledgement as he drove.  It was only the two of them in the trailer but that was never out of the ordinary, and it always provided them with some time to bond; if they ever bonded that is.

"Was there something wrong with Quatre when you last saw him?  You haven't spoken about it since you got back," Catherine told him causing Trowa to stiffen.  "What happened in Italy?"

Trowa sighed a little; he knew he could not avoid the questions forever.  "Quatre was fine, even a bit…giddy," Trowa assured her.

He saw Catherine snap her head towards him in surprise, it made him want to half smile but he couldn't quite pull it off.

"Giddy?  Really?"  She sounded surprised, truly surprised.  "Wow, I thought he would still be a bit saddened by Relena's disappearance.  What do you think changed him all of a sudden?" she inquired.

Trowa thought back to the night of the Fundraiser when Quatre had began to act in his happy little manner.  _Who was it that he had spoken to?  Draca?  No, it was __Lynn__, wasn't it?_ he thought.  "I do not know what exactly it was but it must have been whatever this girl from a band, whom we repeatedly crossed paths with, had said to Quatre that had changed him."

Catherine leaned on her arm, which was plopped on the window frame, and watched Trowa with a searching expression.  It was something that Trowa had gotten used to long ago but now it was bothering him.  Why did she feel the need to try and solve all mysteries about him?

"What about you?" she questioned meaningfully.

"What about me?" he shrugged.

"What has changed you?" she clarified.

"I haven't changed," he argued.  He hadn't changed!  At least he thought he hadn't changed since he had gotten back.

She smiled at him in the way that only Catherine could.  "Sure you have, you are a little more open about your concerns for Quatre.  You call him whenever you are able to get to a payphone and have time to talk to him, which is mostly at night.  Then you stay on the phone chatting with him for two hours at the most and a half hour at the least," Catherine pointed out to him.  "You never did that before, so why now?"

_She is right,_ Trowa realized.  _I have been doing all that and more as of late._  "Uh…" was all he could say.  How was he supposed to explain this transformation?

"Oh this is a triumph, I have silenced you into a blush!" cheered Catherine gently, her voice quivered with a bit of laughter.  "Wow.  Who is this extraordinary person who has brought you a bit out of your protected sexuality shell?  For I must know who to thank."

Trowa sighed, he had just heard the news from Quatre a few nights ago and he still was letting it all sink in.  "It was Relena."

Now it was Catherine's turn to be silenced, but into a shocked silence.

"Oh," was all she said before they returned to their uncomfortable silence.

***   

Heero would have smirked a bit and shook his head if he had been a normal guy, if.  "How did you figure it out?" he questioned.  If his memory served correctly he had orange hair now, not brown, and his eyes were now a dark brown instead of the persian blue, so how _did_ Zeches figure it out?

Zeches laughed at his question in a manner that simply stated, 'it's so obvious'.  "One, your personality," Zeches pointed out.

Mentally Heero kicked himself in the head, of course that would have been a tell-tale sign of who he was!  _I really need to work on that,_ he made a mental note of.

"Secondly, your hair," Zeches continued.

"My…hair?" Heero echoed slowly as he unconsciously ran a hand through his unruly mob.  "What is wrong with my hair?"  Why think that question when Heero could ask it?

"You are the only person I know, possibly in all the colonies and Earth, with such unruly hair," Zeches remarked.

Heero wasn't surprised by the explanation now; he knew that his hair was a mess.  It wasn't because he didn't brush it, in fact he combed it every morning but it would never abide by his commands.  Instead, it would always give Heero trouble and if he tried to gel it down it would pop right back up against the gel.  Sometimes he felt as though it had a life of its own.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes Heero just glared his trademark glare at Relena's brother.  "What do you want with me, Zeches?" he demanded.  In Heero's life he found that being straightforward was the best way to get answers.

"Well," began Zeches, plopping himself down beside Heero, trying to make the scene seem a bit more natural.  "Since we're both here in the same town, after the same girl, I thought perhaps we could…help each other in this search."

Heero's glare intensified by ten fold, who was Zeches to presume that he would dare work with him?!  Sure, Relena was Zeches' baby sister but she was also Heero's charge, not Zeches'.

"Negative," Heero refused.

Zeches was not surprised by the answer, but that didn't stop him from persisting.  "Come on Heero, a soldier of you caliber should be able to see how working together would benefit the both of us."

"I work alone."  It didn't fly past Heero that Zeches obviously did not know that Duo and Hilde were with him as well, and Heero planned on keeping it that way.

"You will need help on this…" Zeches searched his brain for the word, "self-named mission."

_I have my help,_ Heero thought.  "No, I won't," he lied.

Frowning at Heero's stubbornness the older man challenged, "What makes you think you'll be able to find Relena on your own?"

"I know her mind," the former Gundam pilot stated flatly.  _And she still holds some of those 'deep emotions' for me, which will be her downfall,_ Heero mentally vowed as he recalled the letter Relena had left him at the train station.

However, it appeared that Zeches begged to differ for he snorted, "No, you don't."  It took Heero off guard just slightly, but that was all Zeches needed as he continued, "You have never known my sister's mind."

"Neither have you," retorted Heero with an edge to his voice that he didn't mean to put in.

The edge in the former Preventer's voice was not lost on Zeches, provoking him to snap, "I know you would like to think that I do not care for her anymore…"

"Not at all," Heero interrupted truthfully, "you visit her once a year, call four times a year, and send her cards at least three cards.  That's affection in my eyes."  That was the truth; Heero saw nothing wrong with that form of affection for he knew that Zeches was a busy man and his days off were spent doing more work.

"I was busy on Mars," Zeches carried on, ignoring what Heero had said.  "What more do you expect from me?"

"It wasn't I who expected more out of you, it was Relena."  Now it was Zeches' turn to be taken aback.  "Relena was the one that wanted to talk with you, see you, do activities with, not I."

Interrupting their clarifying discussion was Salem, the college kid grabbed Heero and forced him to his feet then proceeded to hide behind the former Gundam pilot while pleading, "Protect me!"

Immediately Heero deducted that Salem had angered someone and that some was Joey since she was approaching them in the most innocent manner that could be.

"Hi Eiji, how are you tonight?" she greeted with a sinfully childlike expression and voice.

"Hn," he grunted as Salem was gripping the back of his shirt tightly.

"Really?  That's what I figured," she smiled.

Heero wanted to hit his head against something!  Apparently Robin had decided to tell everyone to take his 'hn's as a 'yes'.  He would never be able to live without that being thrown at his face, would he?

"Hey," Joey cried, "we're going to start dancing soon, want to be my partner?"

He stiffened at the invite and just as equally stiffly replied, "No."

"Aw…why not?" pouted Joey.

"I don't dance," he answered, the last he danced it was with Sylvia and the last time he had danced that was for 'pleasure' was with Relena at the St. Gabriel Institution party.*

Instead of taking him seriously, Joey laughed at his lame excuse and grabbed his wrist.  "Everyone dances!" she insisted.  Spontaneously she launched her free hand over Heero's shoulder and striking Salem's arm.

"Ow!  Chill _Josephina_, I was only kidding earlier!" Salem groaned.

"Are they always like this?" Zeches interrupted.

"Yes," sighed Heero.

"No!" the siblings corrected.

Joey returned her attention to her brother.  "It wasn't very funny Salem," she hissed.

Salem stuck his tongue out at his sister in the belief that Heero would always be his protection from his twin.  However, Heero proved him wrong when he stepped aside to give Joey the greatest access to her brother.

"Eiji!" Salem yelled in disbelief.  He had been betrayed.

Instead of pounding her brother to the dirt, Joey just began to drag her claimed dance partner towards the cluster of people that had formed.  Simultaneously Robin and Frankie flip two boom boxes on, playing the very familiar 'For Rel' songs.

Heero wanted to groan, the town obviously knew the band, at least by name and song, but that didn't help him with his search.  It especially didn't help that he was in the center of a crowd of college kids who danced in a manner Heero was not used to.

After years of upper-class, ballroom dancing that was the only dance form Heero knew.  So when he saw everyone around him twist their bodies, prance around, twirl, and just plainly move in unorthodox styles, it frightened Heero.  He was wishing to be sitting off to the side with Robin, Warren, Frankie, Amy, and Jake but instead he was stuck in the thicket of people with no way out.

"Eiji, what's wrong?" Joey decided to finally ask.  "Don't you know how to dance?"

Instead of giving the 'hn' response, Heero just shrugged.  He knew how to ballroom dance but not this style of dance.

To his fortune, or perhaps misfortune, Hilde decided to come between Joey and him.  "Sorry Joey but maybe I can help," Hilde apologized getting into the classic waltz position.  "Come on _Eiji_, I'm not going to bite you know."

***From Episode six in the series in case you didn't remember.**


	14. Why

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

Okay, this **note **is for **Gundam Wing Nutcase** and anyone **else** who got **confused** with the **Trowa/Catherine** discussion. Remember, **or **re-read, chapters **15** and 18 **from **'For Rel', **Trowa** likes Quatre (**as** I have **hinted**) and Relena (**Salimar**) figured that **out**. Now, the **discussion** between Trowa **and **Catherine was **meant** to kind **of **show how **Relena's** disappearance does **not** just affect **Heero**, Duo, Hilde, **and **Quatre but **also **the others (**although** indirectly). Plus, **it** was meant **to** suggest that **Trowa** was becoming **more** bold by **going** out of **his **way to **spend** time with **Quatre**, although it's **on** the phone. **If** you still **need** clarification then **ask** and I'll **answer**.

Heero couldn't believe it, he was avoiding everyone and acting like a complete, utter teenager who is ashamed at being caught doing the Salsa with Hilde while making a complete ass of himself. Oh he could just picture it in his head still.

_"Come on Eiji, I'm not going to bite you know," she had teased him with. Reluctantly he took Hilde as his partner and they began to swirl around in a fluid motion as though they had been dancing for years, though Heero believed that he had more smoothness than his partner. "So, was that Zeches?"_

_Hilde had whispered it into his ear while she rested her head on Heero's shoulder. She must have been watching Heero as he conversed with Zech…Mr. Nottingham on the steps._

_"Yeah," he confirmed as he eyed a red faced Duo, who was glaring at him. "I think Duo's jealous that you are dancing with me instead of him."_

_"Let him be jealous for now, I'll explain it to him later that I was just trying to save you from embarrassing yourself by not knowing how to dance…Hey, do you know how to Salsa?" Hilde inquired pulling away from Heero's shoulder._

_Heero snorted, even though Relena had taken the time to learn how to Salsa, Heero had refused to learn such a silly dance. So the answer to Hilde's question was an absolute 'no', and she knew it._

_"Oh that's right, you didn't go to the lessons with me and __Lena__," she laughed. "You should have come with us; it would have been a good experience for you."_

Sitting on his bed, Heero groaned. How was he supposed to know that by not going to a stupid dance lesson he would be forever reminded and taunted by it?! He just had not been interested in the Salsa at the time, but now he kind of did wish he had gone to the lessons and danced.

_"Here, I'll teach you," offered Hilde._

_"No." Heero just didn't want to learn how to do the Salsa, he was perfectly find with the traditional dances and waltzes, that required no extra movement of the hips._

_"Oh come on, I'll demonstrate it for you," Hilde grinned, separating away from Heero and showing the steps of the Salsa._

_After seeing the moves one time, Heero knew them automatically, but that meant diddly to Heero since he still didn't want to Salsa. Hilde held out an offering hand but Heero refused it and was about to join the rest of the outcast dancers, but he ran right into Robin._

_"Leaving so soon Eiji?" he inquired, quite amused. "You're not going to Salsa with Mindy, well then perhaps you'll salsa with me then."_

_Rolling his eyes, Heero returned to Hilde and took up her offer. They started off slow but unfortunately, Heero's movement and steps were never correct. He knew the steps but putting them together with the swaying hips was more difficult than he anticipated. He must have stepped on Hilde's toes at least six times and when he tried to dip her he was certain that he nearly broke her back._

_Heero,_ he thought as he stared up at the ceiling, _you truly are a dumbass._

The phone beside his bed began to ring, playing 'Melody in Five' until Heero finally willed himself to answer the darn thing. "Hello?"

"Hey Heero, what is this that I hear about Zeches being here?" came Duo's whispered voice on the other end of the line.

Heero groaned. It would have only been Duo who would demand to know the reason for Zeches' presence in Sheboygan. Time for the simple explanation. "Duo, meet me outside and I'll tell you all that you need to know." Maybe the explanation should take place somewhere more open and not over the phone.

Hanging up the phone, Heero grabbed a white tank top from the floor and pulled it on. It was the only article of clothing that he lacked since he was wearing his long forgotten, yet trademark biker shorts.

Quietly Heero exited the house; he was hoping to get out of the place without running into Jason or one of her many friends, or her father. Heero shivered at the thought of Jason's father, he never, EVER, wanted to be hugged ever again by another person of the same sex.

_He must have called when he was still undressed,_ Heero assumed as he glanced at his watch only to find out that he had been sitting on Jason's steps waiting for Duo for the last ten minutes. _He loves to take his time._

"Hey," Duo called out as he raced down the sidewalk. "You know, I should start too serious contemplate killing you and Hilde for making me cross-dress. This is insufferable."

The former Zero pilot glanced over his companion and raised an eyebrow at him. "It can't be so bad if, if I'm not mistaken, _Selfie_, you are wearing pants, your normal pants," Heero pointed out, wondering when this change had come about. Rising to his feet Heero gestured with his head that they go for a little walk while they talk.

"Yeah, well, everyone in this town seems to know that I'm actually a guy in dress. So, I figured that I may as well wear some pants every now and then, but maintain these ridiculous shirts that Hilde bought me, to keep up the sort of cross-dressing appearance," explained Duo, gratified to know that he had stunned Heero a bit.

"How?" Heero was willing to admit that Duo was by far not the best crossdresser in the universe but to be found out was pathetic.

Duo just shrugged, "I don't know but Robin says I'm the worst crossdresser he has ever seen, next to Salem of course."

For the second time that day, Heero was taken back. "Salem crossdresses?" _Could Relena possibly be __Salem__?_

"Yeah, past tense not present so don't you dare get the idea into your head that Salem and Relena are one and the same person," corrected Duo sensing Heero's thought line.

"I wasn't…" began Heero.

"What's Zeches doing here," interrupted the braided guy before blowing a bang out of his face.

Heero decided to not try to explain himself about Salem and Relena. "Looking for Relena, just like us."

"No kidding," scoffed Duo as though he thought it was pathetically stupid. "And he knows you're here."

_Hilde certainly told Duo quite a bit,_ Heero thought. "That he does, but thankfully he doesn't know about Hilde and you which means we have an advantage over him. So, _please_, keep cross-dressing."

Duo let out a defeated sigh, he had hoped to somehow ease out of the whole cross-dressing thing and perhaps make up another fake name for himself, something more masculine. "Fine, but I'm going to kill you after we find Relena…" Something clicked inside Duo's mind that made him halt in front of Frankie's house and turn to Heero with a most serious expression. "Why do _you_ want to find her?"

On the inside Heero groaned, that was the number one question that he dreaded just because he didn't have a real answer that others would accept. He was still promised to protect her and to keep the peace between the colonies and Earth, something Heero doubted that would remain if Relena was not Vice Foreign Minister.

So instead of directly answering the question Heero just returned the question. "Why do you?"

"She's my friend, Heero, for one, and two I want to ask her some questions. Other than that I do not wish to disturb her happiness. Now you answer the question," Duo replied.

"Same," Heero lied.

Duo grabbed Heero's shirt and pulled him close. "Bull! That is a bunch of bull and you know it!" the God of Death hissed at the unfazed guy.

Pushing Heero away Duo began to walk away but stopped and turned back to Heero. "You've been chasing the girl all this time for no reason?! Are you really that unfeeling towards her?"

Unsurprisingly, Heero didn't reply.

'Perhaps you should have stuck to Sylvia," Duo commented.

Heero grimaced at the memory of his former girlfriend, especially since he had unknowingly pushed her away with his obsession…no, hunt for Relena. Sylvia had been good enough to inform of that the last time he had seen her in Italy.

"It would never have worked between her and me," Heero reasoned. _At least that's what she felt._

"Why?" After Italy Heero had not spoken about what transpired between him and Sylvia, suddenly she was out of the picture. Although Hilde was ecstatic about it Duo was a little curious as to who broke it off and why.

Apparently, Heero was not going to satisfy his curiosity for the Zero pilot kept silent.

With a frustrated sigh, Duo veered around and continued to march away yelling back, "Fine, keep your damn secrets. Let _them_ eat at you!"

"Bad break-up?" came a voice from the porch.

Shifting his eyes to the person, Heero saw Frankie lying on the porch playing with a rubix triangle. _When did she get there?_ Heero wondered, hoping that she hadn't heard much of his and Duo's conversation.

"No," he answered stiffly.

"Sounded like it," Frankie commented.

"It wasn't a break-up, we were just having a disagreement," Heero clarified.

"Not between you and Selfie, between you and that girl, Sylvia," corrected the girl, sitting up now. "Was it that horrible of a break-up?"

"Hn." _Shit_, he thought just remembering that everyone was now taking the 'hn' for a yes, which was not what he wanted to say. "No, just unexpected."

"Care to tell me your tale of woe?" questioned Frankie, standing up, ready to approach Heero if his answer was 'yes'.

"No." His entire being was so tense, causing his adrenaline to run like back in days of the Eves' War.

Frankie just shrugged as she glanced inside the house, only to see Robin motioning her inside. "Suite yourself," Frankie told him, noting bothering to press Heero on the matter until he broke. Instead, she just retreated back into the house, to give her cousin a hand.

_What the hell is going on?_ wondered Heero, feeling as though everyone was literally against him that day.

Starring at the closed door Heero's thoughts took a different turn. _Frankie doesn't press an issue, she lets me keep my privacy. Relena did that too. They both have that kind of hair color, though Relena was not so…tomboyish. Then again, her friends have kept mentioning the fact that I don't know the _real_ Relena. I'll have to keep my eye on Frankie._


	15. Information

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Sorry about the late update folks but my internet decided to be stupid and have a weak signal. Anyways, that's all taken care of now and I give you the update.**

Working late was never a walk in the park, nor was it ever exciting, unless you were working with Relena and had a bowl of popcorn or a bag of twizzlers to play with. Unfortunately, for Quatre, Relena was not there to make the night seem fun or seem to fly by and the work lighter, instead it was quite the opposite. The work load seemed heavier, time seemed to be moving slower than normal, and it was most certainly not fun.

Pacing back and forth about the room while reading a shuttle security proposal, which Quatre had expected to see six months ago, he chewed on the cap of his pen. Unlike some politicians, Quatre liked to read the proposals he was meant to sign rather than be briefed about them.

As he re-read the third paragraph, trying to decide whether or not a search of packages and suitcases was completely necessary, the phone rang. Without stopping his pacing Quatre threw a glare at the machine and continued to read. The second ring earned a brief halt in Quatre's pacing and another glare, but the third ring made Quatre toss down the proposal and pen on his desk. By the fourth ring Quatre had answered the phone.

"Hello?" he growled, if it was going to be that stupid reporter again then there were going to be cracked skulls.

"Wow, that was a rather warm greeting," teased the voice Quatre's ears were yearning to hear most during this long night.

Taken by surprise to actually have Relena call him, Quatre almost missed his chair when he sat down; he just barely made it onto the seat. "Um…yeah, sorry about that but it's been such a long day, four meetings with repeating the same thing and now I'm working late to correct and possibly sign this proposal," explained Quatre.

"Oh," Relena replied sounding sympathetic, but then why wouldn't she since she had to go through the exact same thing at one point. "I can always call you some other time when you're not busy or anything…"

No, he couldn't lose this chance to talk to her. He had to keep her on the phone for as long as possible, even if it meant putting in a few more minutes than he should.

"No, no, it's okay. I can handle the proposal, besides I'm almost done with it," he lied.

"If you insist…" Relena stated.

Without really meaning to, Quatre quickly assured her, "I do…insist that is." Was it him or did Quatre sound like a silly school boy that couldn't talk straight with the girl he had a crush on? He only could hope that she didn't notice it.

"Okay then," she agreed and Quatre could just feel her smile on the other line. "So, did you get any information, other than that lovely proposal that I'm sure is very interesting?"

Quatre couldn't help but smiling at the teasing, leave it to Relena to mock the work of a politician, she had done it sometimes but not often when she was Vice Foreign Minister.

"Quite a bit of news, which do you want first? The good news or the bad?" Quatre questioned as he shuffled through his desk draws for the printed information he had been barely able to access.

"Uh-oh, um…let's start off with the bad news first," she decided.

Finding the papers Quatre leaned back in his seat and began to relay his friend his discoveries. "Well, Heero, Duo, and Hilde had all quit their jobs as Preventers."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few moments; Quatre was even beginning to wonder if Relena had hung up on him. "Are you serious?" she muttered.

"Dead serious," confirmed Quatre, skimming the document. "Apparently, your case was put on the back burner and Heero was not down with that decision. Plus, Lady Une was getting a bit irritated with Heero's insubordination as far as letting your case drop."

On the other line Relena snorted in irony, she just figured that would be how Heero would react to such a discovery. It was not that far of a stretch to image Heero not letting that settle well with him, but to quit, that was what surprised Relena the most.

"So where's the so-called bad news in that?" Relena questioned after swallowing something.

"The bad thing is that I can't track his activities then. I have no idea where he is and knowing Heero, he's not using his name and he probably has been covering his tracks with his expert skill," Quatre told her.

"Shit!" cussed Relena as she sighed heavily.

Quatre was taken back just a bit, he had heard Relena swear a few times in the past but since it was such a rarity it shocked the young politician when she _did_ swear. In a way it just seemed so unlike Relena to swear, but that might be why she cusses so seldom since it's not what people expect out of her.

"Though apparently, Zeches has been given _your_ case," the blond told his friend and waited for the screaming he half expected to hear next.

Instead it was her asking, "I thought my case was put on the back burner. If it was put on the back burner than Milliardo can't have my case, and last time I checked he was on Mars, not Earth or the Colonies."

"Yeah well, it seems that Lady Une had contacted your brother and requested his immediate assistance if he wanted to keep your file open at all. And I said that your disappearance search was on the back burner for Heero, not for Zeches," corrected Quatre.

"Damn it, sorry for my language Quatre, this is just some really troublesome news," Relena explained.

"Not at all, but I should tell you, Une has erased all traces of Zeches' whereabouts after his landing in Japan," added the young man although he dreaded being the bringer of ill tidings.

Despite the phone, Quatre could tell that Relena was smiling reassuringly. "It's okay Quatre, I think I have a pretty good idea of where he is," she told him with a hint of irony in her tone. "Anyways, if that was all the bad news then I would like to hear what the good news is."

At this Quatre laughed heartily, "Zeches taking your case was the good news."

That stunned Relena into silence for a few moments before Quatre heard a small, "Oh."

"How's the weather wherever you are?" the politician inquired offhandedly. He just couldn't think of anything else to keep the conversation going but he didn't want to hang up either.

Much to Quatre's pleasure, Relena laughed, "Delightful! Now, you are not going to try to kidnap and drag me back to politics in Pittsburg, are you?"

He smiled at her teasing, "Never, you really don't belong in politics anymore; your time is over with."

There was that smile again, Quatre could just sense it on Relena's features. "Thank you Quatre, you're a true friend."

If that wasn't the best compliment ever then Quatre didn't know what was!

"Relena?"

"Yeah?"

"I…I…" Quatre began but paused. _Say it!_ his mind urged. "I…hope that Zeches won't affect our meeting for the comic convention," he finished lamely. _Stupid!_ Quatre scolded himself for chickening out on telling the girl his feelings.

"No, neither Milliardo nor Heero's presence will or could keep me from spending a day with you," she assured him in that honest way that only Relena could do.

"Good," smiled Quatre, pretending that he was relieved.

"I'll call you next week; I've got to get to bed for I have class tomorrow. Night," Relena yawned.

Chuckling a bit Quatre nodded, "Night."

Hanging up the phone Quatre buried his face in his hands and banged his forehead against his desk a few times. "I should have told her," he muttered before sitting back again, but this time twirling his pen between his fingers as he thought. "There's still time," he decided finally, "since I can always tell her at the convention."

Picking up the proposal Quatre sighed, "Yeah, there's time…" Glancing out of the corner of his eye Quatre stared at a picture of the group, he was right beside Relena, who seemed as though she were in another world entirely with that genuine 'Relena smile' on her face.

Relena set down the phone then fell back upon her bed only stare up at the ceiling while her hand grabbed a small plastic card from her nightstand. Starring at the card she turned it over and over again as she analyzed her actions and the actions of everyone else.

"They're here, I just know it," she mumbled as there was a knock on her door. "Coming!"

With some effort, Relena rolled off her bed and headed for the door, not before setting the card, which happened to have the label 'Preventer' on it and a serial number belonging to its owner. Although the card had no name on it, it was pretty obvious to Relena that some of the Preventers were not letting her go that easily.


	16. Hanging Out

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Hey, I'm back!  I know you all just throwing tomatoes and lettuce at me, but allow me to explain…I had exams, I was on vacation for nine days, and my mother keeps me very busy, plus I had writers block.  Okay, now that's that is all cleared up, on with the chapter!**

_Why do I _want_ to find her?_ Heero questioned as he stared unblinkingly at the ceiling with his hands folded under his head.

Yes, it was that time of year that came around every five to ten times a year for Heero, 'Reflection Time', and he was not enjoying it in the least.  Unfortunately Heero was not one of those people who found time every day, week, or month to take the time to reflect upon his actions or events that have happened to him.  No, most of his actions were done on the spot due to his training, instinct, and logic; all of which called for the usage of his brain and instincts, not his heart, that treacherous organ!

What he had told Duo earlier was a lie, about wanting to find Relena because she was his friend and he did not want to ask to disturb her happiness.  The lying part was that he was not her friend; he was her bodyguard and her crush, though she claims it is love.  Plus, he did have intentions of disturbing her happiness if it meant him accomplishing his mission.

_And just what is that?_ he asked himself.  At first his mission was to retrieve the Vice Foreign Minister and bring her back into politics so that she may finish off her term.   However, Sylvia had claimed that it was more than just his need to protect Relena, he was her bodyguard, or that the world of politics still needed Ms. Darlian.

_When did I resort back to calling her _that_?!_ Heero exclaimed, glaring at the ceiling in concentration.  _The last time I referred to her as Ms. Darlian was when I was first introduced to her as her bodyguard and she scolded me for referring to her as though they were complete strangers._

The memory was actually funny now that Heero was dwelling on it.  He just couldn't believe that he _had_ called her by such a formal title after all that they had gone through during the Eves War and the Mariemaia Rebellion.

Did he just laugh out loud?  He must have for it still rang in the air around him.

"Who would have thought, Heero Yuy being capable of laughing aloud?" he sniffed.

"Hey Eiji," Jason called from his door, "I'm going out with some of the girls…"

"And guys!" interjected what sounded like Jackson's voice.

"And guys," added Jason, exasperation tainting her tone, "so you're on your own for food again.  Sorry about that, unless you want to come along."

Heero had no idea why but Jason often left him to fend for himself at night to either go to work, though he was not certain what her job was, or Jason would go out with her friends.  Oddly though, Jason would often invite Heero to join her and her friends when they would go out, of course he would refuse.

_You ought to part take in one of those outings one of these days so that you are not so...singled out,_ Heero thought.  "Sure, I'll come with you."

_Wait!  What?!_  Had he really agreed to go with Jason and her friends?!  Did his mouth just go off without his brain?!

"Great, get your cute butt down here then!" Joey's voice yelled up.

Apparently Heero had taken the invite to join them…what was he going to do about it?  The only thing he could.

Rolling off his bed, Heero slipped on his trademark shoes and resigned himself to the fate he had cast himself into.  _Just had to agree to this, didn't you?!_

"There you are," greeted Jake when Heero came down into the living room.  It looked as though half of the community was packed into the little rectangular room.

_Half of the community probably is,_ commented Heero.

"We ready now?  Good, let's go," Vicki stated, getting up and taking the lead out the door.

The room slowly emptied until there was only Heero and Salem left to decide who would be the last to leave the house.  They stared at each other for a moment before Salem motioned Heero to go first while saying, "Ladies first."

That little remark mixed with that half-smirk rewarded Salem with Heero's patent glare and reply, "No I insist that the _lady _be the first to go."

Instead of returning Heero's glare or saying something in anger, Salem laughed and held up an 'Okay' sign.  "Touché!  Touché Eiji!" he laughed brushing past Heero and going out the door, but he turned for a moment.  "But this is very ungentlemanly-like for me not to allow a young lady such as yourself not to go first."

Rolling his eyes, Heero followed Salem out and shut the door tightly behind him.

Okay, Heero had to admit that 'hanging out' with the group was not a complete waste of time that bored him to no ends; it was actually kind of interesting in a sort of queer-teenaged way.  They all went to see this comedy-romance movie, 'Out of the Blue', and it turned out that the movie was a cheesy romance that had almost everyone in the group throwing popcorn at the screen.

Though Heero did not join in with the throwing of popcorn, he watched as some of the people in front of them were being hit by the kernels and how the group played the part of 'deeply engrossed in the movie to throw popcorn'.  The façade didn't last long before they started having food fights with each other with Heero, having the misfortune of being seated somewhere in the middle, getting the blunt of the attacks.  In fact, he still believed that there was some popcorn kernels still stuck in his hair.

Now the group was just lounging in 'their' café while sipping down some drinks and just generally mellowing out.

Heero didn't know why the kids liked the café so much, to him it was a place to come to for a quick bit to eat and for coffee, not some place to 'hang' with friends.  Still, that was what the group, excluding Heero, was doing.  Heero couldn't 'hang' with friends if he didn't have any…

"Need some company?"

"Uh?"  Heero snapped his head up from the napkin he was doodling on and found that it was Robin addressing him while pointing at the empty chair right across from Heero.  "No," Heero stated, "I don't want company."

Robin snorted, "That's not what I asked.  I asked if you _needed_ some company, and trust me, there is a difference."

"I know there is but once again, I don't _need_ company," Heero told her as he returned to his doodling.

Ignoring Heero's statement Robin took the empty seat and observed Heero's drawing for a moment.  It was very detailed and it appeared, to Robin, to be more of a blue print than an actual doodle.

"Are you sure you're in the right major?" he inquired after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Heero grumbled, pretending to be concentrating on the doodle whether than on Frankie, who stood on the other side of the café laughing at something Jackson had said.

"I mean, are you sure your major shouldn't be in engineering or something along those lines?" Robin clarified with a smirk as he stretched his arms above his head and cranked his head backwards to release the stiffness in his neck.

"No, but then again isn't that what college is for?  To find what you really want to do with your life?" Heero answered.  English was not a major that Heero would have taken by choice and obviously Robin had caught onto that…_Better put this away._  With that thought, Heero slipped the napkin into his pocket to finish back in the privacy of his room-attic.

"Does she remind you of _her_?" Robin inquired out of the blue as he returned his head to normal.

"Who reminds me of whom?"  There must have been something that Heero had missed when he had put that doodle away.

"Does Frankie remind you of that girl, Sylvia?" elaborated Robin, sipping his drink than almost sprayed it at Heero.  "Ah!  Hot."

Raising an eyebrow, Heero remarked, "Word gets around fast around here, doesn't it?"

Shaking his head as though amused, Robin chuckled softly and leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs.  "Between cousins that are as tight as Frankie and I nothing is sacred," he replied with a grin.  "Was Sylvia that girl who you ran from?"

_Does this guy ever drop a topic?_ Heero wondered, directing his glare at the boy seat across from him.  "No, Sylvia was not her name."

"Oh…is that so…"  Under Robin's securitizing eyes Heero felt almost naked and it made him shudder slightly for only few people had ever had that effect on him:  Odin Lowe, Dr. J, Relena, and Dorothy.  Now, he had another person to add to that growing list.

"Hey Robin, go play peacemaker before Jason and Ringo go at it again," Frankie commanded her cousin as she approached the table.

Breaking eye contact with Heero, Robin rose from his seat and set his features with an expression of playful exasperation.  "Again?  Don't those two know that they are just really star-crossed lovers?"

"Yeah right, as star-crossed as you and I," Frankie snorted only to be nudged by Robin.

"That brings disturbing thoughts," muttered Robin, causing Heero to bite back an ironic grin that threatened to present itself upon his face.

"Forget I said it, now go make pax," ordered Frankie as she gave Robin a shove towards the group.  "Sorry that my cousin is such a nuisance Eiji, he needs to know any and all gossip that he can get his hands onto."

"Why is that?  It's a bit of a…unusual trait for a guy," Heero noted, leaning back to hear the excuses for Robin's queer behavior.

The Shelly Family seemed to have the habit of finding Heero's questions and comments to be rather amusing instead of serious, especially since Frankie was laughing uncontrollably in Robin's seat.  Pounding her feet and sometimes fist, Frankie slowly regained some form of composure.

"To help you understand Robin's mannerisms would take quite a while since I would have to explain our history, both his and mine.  Trust me, it's a very long history and I have no intention of making it short," Frankie explained.  "But I can tell you this; part of the reason Robin is the way he is because he grew up around only women."

"Sounds like Representative Quatre Winner," commented Heero only to realize that he may have just slipped up somehow by the way that Frankie was eyeing him behind her cup of latte.

"Hey Frankie, let's go!" shouted Robin from the door.  "We have to work and we have classes tomorrow you know!"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" returned Frankie half-heartedly.  "It was good talking to you Eiji," she whispered when she pat Heero on the shoulder before leaving.

_I hope I didn't just compromise this entire plan just now,_ Heero thought rubbing his eyes.


	17. A Job

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

"I'm impressed Heero, you actually went out with a group of people to the movies and not because you had a gun to your head! Wow," commented Duo as he picked at his McDonalds salad with his plastic fork.

"You don't need to remind me," grumbled Heero, stirring his coffee mindlessly. "Do you think that I did compromise our mission with the whole Sylvia and Quatre stuff?"

Duo stopped his picking and leaned back in his chair for a moment as he contemplated the question. "It depends really on how much they know. I mean come on, everyone or at least most the college brats are friends with Relena, either directly or indirectly, so it would depend on how much she told them," Duo thought aloud. "If she told them about you and your _ex_-girlfriend as well as about our history together as gundam pilots, then I would say you fucked up royally."

Had Heero been the average twenty-year old he would have groaned and banged his head against the table, but he wasn't the average twenty-year old, he was the perfect soldier version of a twenty-year old. Instead of the groaning and banging of the head, Heero rubbed his chin in thought for a moment, trying to figure out a loophole of some sort.

"Well, information about Quatre isn't exactly all that classified, I could have found it on the internet for some past report, and Sylvia is a fairly common name among girls, right?" he suggested lamely. What kind of person would buy that lie?!

"Yeah, about every one out of every four hundred and sixty-some girls is named Sylvia, I think," nodded Duo but not exactly reassuringly. He couldn't think of another girl named Sylvia except for the Vice-Foreign Minister, so he would never have bought Heero's excuse. "Besides, how much would Relena want her friends to know?"

There was a moment of realization that passed through the two guys before they both sighed, "Everything."

Recovering the utterly defeating truth, Heero glanced around the fast food restaurant and noticed something was out of place. "Duo, where is Hilde?"

"Oh, she has work right now," Duo replied, picking up a tomato. "Do you think these things are really good to eat?"

"Since when did Hilde have a job?" Heero inquired as he glanced down at his watch, watching the time so he knew when to get to his next class.

"Since she found out that Relena could not be in the business classes, so she decided that she could possibly be more helpful if she got a job working with one of the girls," Duo answered absently as he shoved the salad away. "Why did I let Hilde talk me into dieting?"

Heero snorted, "Because she's your girlfriend."

"Hey, we're _not_, I repeat, _not_ boyfriend and girlfriend, we're just really good friends," the crossdresser defended. "Besides, you better not get me started on talking about _you_ and _Relena_ being boyfriend and girlfriend, now there was some interesting chemistry."

Heero seriously could believe his ears; someone had actually thought that he and Relena, of all people, had good chemistry and could have been seen as lovers…The thought shocked him. When had he given off that impression?!

Instead of questioning Duo into his theories of how he and Relena had 'interesting chemistry', Heero went on to question about Hilde's job. "So where is she working at and with whom?"

Duo had noticed that Heero had not taken the bait, so the braided-boy decided to just leave the topic of Relena alone. "She's working with Joey and Salem at this antique bike store down the road," he replied. "I can't see how a girl can be interested in mechanics like how Hilde is…"

"Why not, after all, Hilde was the one who ran the junk yard before you two became Preventers, and before that she was a soldier. So, I imagine that she probably has some mechanic skills, whether they be good or not I don't know but I'm sure she has some skill," stated Heero, picking up his wrapper and empty soda cup and depositing them into a nearby trash can.

"Hey, wait up!" Duo called after the perfect soldier, dumping his salad in the trash. "Hey, did you ever think about my question?"

"Which one?" retorted Heero, running a hand through his hair, which needed to get dyed again.

At his friend's stubbornness Duo rolled his eyes and gave Heero a bit of a shove. "Don't try to play cute man, you know what I'm talking about. Why are you still chasing after Relena, and don't feed me that BS about you wanting to ask her a few questions and not wanting to disturb her happiness," Duo commanded.

Heero stopped short for a moment before he turned to Duo with a stern expression. "Listen, I don't know why except for the fact that I had made a promise to protect her once and I want to live up to that promise," Heero claimed. _Did I really just say that?_ What was happening to him?! What had happened to the perfect soldier that he once was; calculating, unfeeling, and perfect?

"When did you start to care so much for protecting Relena?" Duo inquired in shock. "I mean I know you keep to your word but, man, you actually wanting to protect Relena was something a little too far-fetched even for me, and that's saying a lot with all the rumors about you two and all."

"What rumors?" There were rumors about him and Relena floating around the work area before he had left?! Why hadn't Heero heard any of them?

"Come over for dinner and I'll tell you all about them," Duo bargained. However, Heero did not like that idea so he suggested, "After class."

"Okay," Duo agreed, "after class it is then. See you then."

* * *

Hilde couldn't believe that Duo had made such a fuss to her the night before when she told him about her new job working with Joey and Salem at their family bike shop. He went on for hours giving her pathetic reasons as to why she shouldn't be working with them and how it could 'endanger' their 'mission'.

_How can he call it a mission as though we were going to be taking her away against her will! _Hilde thought, fastening the wheel to an antique bike. _If anything this should really help in our search, I can look up information from their book accounts and gossip._

The bell from the door rang as Robin and Jackson came running in with very large grins on their faces.

"Hey Mindy, do you know where Joey is?" Jackson inquired obviously in a major hurry to talk to his friend.

"Yeah, she's in the back," Hilde pointed.

"Thanks," Jackson returned quickly, dashing into the back and leaving Robin behind with Hilde.

"What's going on, Robin?" questioned the ex-preventer, rubbing her hands on her overalls and standing up.

"Come on, you might be interested in this too," Robin winked, pulling Hilde to the counter and they waited for the other two to come out of the back.

Jackson, Joey, _and_ Salem came out from the back room excitedly and crowded around Robin as he pulled out a magazine. Flipping to a marked page, Robin pointed to one specific section.

"He's going to be at the convention this year, see!" Robin declared, pointing at the name 'Wesley James'. "I told ya!"

"Hey now, wait a minute here Robin," Salem interjected, "just because he is supposed to be there doesn't mean he'll actually be there. Get my drift?"

"Frig."

Joey took the magazine and began to examine the text on the pages. "Hey, they're planning on bringing back a bunch of classic series again, and this one sounds interesting, 'Ranma ½'," she pointed out, placing the magazine back down.

"Thank you! We are going to see that one," announced Jackson but then he thought about it for a second. "Actually, we're going to see all of them for at least one episode then buying the whole series."

Salem laughed, "If we have the money you mean."

Jackson blushed for a moment, he completely forgot that classic series were often expensive and the group had a limited income that they took to the conventions.

"Just what is this convention?" Hilde questioned as she observed the magazine and began reading over many comic industry names, artists, and writers that were supposed to be at this convention.

Joey turned to her with an earnest smile, "It's the Philadelphia Comic Convention, and we go there every year. There and Chicago, but Chicago is further away so we're just keeping our eyes on Philly for now."

"When is it?"

"The 19th through the 21st of May," answered Salem as he flipped through the magazine pages. "But of course we're only going on the twentieth. Oh, what a great day that will be!"

"That's only a few weeks away though," Hilde realized.

"No kidding, that's why we're all working our butts off for money. Thankfully, we're all driving there, so we only have to chip in on gas money rather than on plane tickets," Robin commented.

At the word 'work' Hilde's head snapped around to Robin in surprise. "You work?" she questioned in disbelief.

The disbelief must have shown in Hilde's voice for it had caused Robin to chuckle at her. "Yeah, I work," he confirmed, still chuckling a bit. "Is it that hard to believe?"

"No, it's just that I never seen you around anywhere around here," reasoned 'Mindy' lamely, blushing a bit in embarrassment. Leave it to her to ask a stupid question like that!

"I work a couple blocks down the way at the family comic store," Robin smiled then squinted his eyes as he glanced to the left. "Well, actually, it should be called a comic slash action figure slash poster slash video store because we don't just sell comics and all."

This greatly surprised Hilde, she would never have taken anyone in town for being a comic fan, but apparently there was a whole group of them that enjoyed the archaic things.

"Frankie and Robin are our go-getters as far as comics are concerned. We pay them and they'll put comics off to the side for us, not to mention they'll give us a heads up on any new comics coming out soon," Joey stated, sitting herself on the countertop. "Of course, since the comic industry had slowed down a bit about ten years back it has been steadily picking up speed again after that 'Something' movie came out."

"Ah…" nodded Hilde. "So is everyone into comics here or something?"

"I'm not," claimed Jackson with a grin, "I just go for the people in costumes and for the weapons that I can get at the convention. Screw the comic universe in my opinion… Hey!" Jackson had been promptly slapped in the back of the head by Salem.

"We don't make fun of your dolls so quit insulting our literature," the twin growled.

"Action figures, not dolls," corrected Jackson before Robin, feeling the tension that was building, grabbed the magazine and began to pull Jackson towards the door.

"Come on Jackson," he hissed, "we've got work to do and people to see. Catch you guys later, and Mindy, Selfie was looking for you this morning, something about having to talk to you about a bike or something."

Hilde couldn't help but smile, it was Duo sad attempt of using code to tell her that he wanted to talk to her about her job again. "Thanks Robin, I'll talk to him later," she promised before the two boys left.

"Alright," Joey spoke up, "now that the exciting news is over let's all get back to work. Hey, Mindy, is that bike almost done with?"

"Yeah, I'll have it on the rack shortly," Hilde assured.

"Great, I knew I could count on you!" complimented Joey before going back into the back room with Salem.

_So the comic convention…would Relena go there? I mean it's a great place to get lost in a crowd, should she need to,_ Hilde thought as she returned to the bike. _Looks like we need to get our passes if we're to go to __Philadelphia__.___

**Okay, back by demand of one person, I am bringing back the poll.**

**Frankie-2**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-1**


	18. Silent Call

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

"And that concludes today's lesson," announced Zeches after the dismissal bell rang. The College Board felt the need to install bells so that the professors would know when their lessons were over with. "I hope that all of you have begun your papers!"

Many groans were heard from the students that were exiting the room as fast as possible, freedom from class did not fade over time for most students. Still, much to Zeches' amazement, one student stayed behind and still sat at his desk, all of possessions packed.

"What is it that you need Salem?" questioned Zeches, the kid was just one out of a number of his students who seemed to be doing more than just listening to his lectures. Quite a number of his students, he had noticed, were more or less studying him as though trying to see through his disguise and into his true identity. Of course, it could have been his non-existent imagination running wild.

"Actually I was wondering Prof. where you got the idea that Sir Willis Scott was making references to the Sanc Kingdom in _Withering Memories_. He never stated specific places or events of the country that would lead anyone to believe that the middle country was the Sanc Kingdom, if anything it probably was Italy," Salem corrected.

The kid was too observant for his own good, in Zeches opinion. He just had to point that out after the lecture Zeches had given the class about the usage of indirect clues and pieces that appear at varies intervals in books.

"If you must know, I read the notes of the book, thoroughly, and he stated clearly that he meant the middle country of the war to be the Sanc Kingdom," explained Zeches, lying just a little bit. He had read the notes but nowhere in the notes did it state that Scott had written the middle country as the Sanc Kingdom.

"Oh, and here I assumed that you just had a deep connection with the country," Salem commented with a sort of knowing look which made Zeches a little uneasy. "Thanks Prof. see you in Tuesday."

"See you," returned Zeches, watching the boy leave the room. _Why was he suddenly curious about the references to the __Sanc__Kingdom__?_ he wondered, putting a finger to his chin. _Could they be onto me already?_

* * *

Why was this becoming so difficult to figure out? It was supposed to be all in black and white, right? Either he cared for Relena professionally or not, either he was infatuated with her or not. Where was the difficulty in that?

Well, wherever the difficulty was Heero had to deal with it. He was sitting out on the steps at ten at night trying to make sense of his feelings-which he had been ignoring-and what Duo had told him.

Apparently a lot of the Preventers, both in the office and out on the field, were under the impression that Relena and Heero were secret lovers and that was why Heero was her bodyguard rather than one for hire like most of them. Of course that was insane, he was only trying to keep his vow to protect Relena and that was to be her bodyguard, unfortunately the protecting from the shadows had been becoming increasingly ineffective.

Then there was the rumor that Heero had taken the night shift so that he may sleep with the Vice Foreign Minister. For all those idiots' information, Heero was only in Relena's room once every night and that was to check for bugs and bombs, other than that he had never set foot into her room.

Another infamous rumor was that Heero and Relena were secretly engaged or married, and had been since after the Eves War. It was all nonsense! How and where were these people coming up with such farfetched ideas?! Heero had not given Relena anything other than that teddy bear for her sixteenth birthday, but other than that he had never given her anything personally, he usually would chip in with Duo or Hilde on a present.

Now, sorting out the Preventer gossipers' mistakes was easy enough but dealing with the possibilities and emotions that came with each idea was another story. Heero _had_ taken the job as bodyguard to be _with_ Relena, but now came the question of, was it for more than to protect her? To one extent he wanted to deny any other reason and that was the side of him that was still a soldier, but another part of him, that more human aspect, told him that there was more to it. How could there have been?

As far as him going into Relena's room at night, he had to admit that there were those few times when the thought of going inside, to check up on her of course, had crossed his mind. Then the possibility of being caught or freezing at the sight that may have been before him if he had went in kept Heero from going in. Still, those few crossing thoughts about going into her room did tempt Heero quite a few times.

But being engaged or even…gulp…m-ma-_married_ to her was unthinkable! He could well assure anyone whoever knew and did not know him that the thought of marrying Relena had never _ever_ once crossed his mind. The same with Sylvia, the thought marrying her was never in his mind when he began dating her, it more or less the opportunity to try to live a more…normal life.

Wow, people certainly had active imaginations and seemed to like making up motives behind every action, motives that took little to no thought. How was that Heero? He usually thought things through…well, for the most part, he did have his mishaps. Perfect soldier indeed.

"Eiji, what are you doing out here?" Jason inquired, coming out of the house ready for work.

"Thinking," he told her and this time it wasn't some cover for his real actions.

"About what?" she pried, taking a seat next to him.

"Just how people can just confuse the simplest motives for something more emotional," he explained but that didn't quite make sense when he said it.

Still, he saw Jason nod, so she must have gotten his meaning. "Yeah, that's for sure. Is that what happened between you and your run-away friend? A bunch of people began spreading rumors about you two being a couple and she ran from you when she found out it wasn't true?"

Heero couldn't help but snort. "I was right when I told Robin that word gets around fast around here," he coughed.

Jason laughed at the comment in that sort of ironic way, but she didn't seem to be fazed by the comment much. "Well, I'd hate to burst the bubble but you're right. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is sacred around here. Once one of us gets a bit of information everyone gets a hold of that information, and that's because we're all family really," Jason replied.

Heero raised an eyebrow at her last statement.

"Not by blood relation of course but we've all known each other for most of our lives so we are really like a huge family. That would be why we're always doing these cook-outs, movie nights, and such," clarified Jason before glancing at her watch. "Oh my God, I'm going to be late! I've got to go Eiji, see you later."

"Jason, can I ask you something?" Heero spoke up, stopping her from leaving after she got up.

"Sure."

"Have _all_ of you been living here for the most part?" he questioned.

Giving him a small smile, Jason bent down and whispered in Heero's ear, "Everyone has lived here for the last ten years except you and your friends. Night Eiji." With that, Jason gave Heero a peck on the cheek and then left.

A few moments after she left Heero was still sitting on the step but with a hand to his cheek. It wasn't as though he had never been kissed on the cheek before, please. Sylvia had only been his girlfriend for several months and before her, Relena had an infatuation with him so she would sometimes-not very often-she would give him a kiss on the cheek.

Even so, Heero hadn't expected Jason to give him a kiss on the cheek. After all this was Jason, the girl with multi-colored hair who had a father that wasn't afraid to give bear hugs to young men, and she was probably one of the only people in the entire town who really gave him space for the most part.

What pulled Heero out his little daze was the sound of his cell phone ringing from his pocket. Pulling out the portable device, Heero flipped it open ready to hear more of Duo's rant about how Hilde shouldn't be working.

"Yuy," he stated simply.

"Heero, do you think that Relena would be into comics?" came Hilde's voice at the other end.

"What?!" he had to ask. What was this all about comics and Relena?

Hilde sighed, "Do you think that Relena would by some perchance be into comics at all?" The exasperation in her tone was hard to miss.

"Relena? No, I doubt she ever picked up a comic in her life," Heero answered wondering what had brought about the question in the first place. "Why?"

"Well," she began and Heero could feel a long explanation coming on, "today at the bike shop Robin and Jackson brought in this magazine and were discussing some of these people and stuff being at some comic convention in Philadelphia in a few weeks. They mentioned how basically everyone was going to be going, so I was wondering if you may have thought that Relena would be interested in such things."

Heero sat back and pondered on this. _Her friends keep telling me that I don't the 'real' Relena but rather a façade version of her. So, for all I know she could have been or became a comic fan and we would never have known. Then again, she could be as I suspect, not interested in such ridiculous things and she wouldn't go. But she could always go even if she didn't like comics just so that she could be lost in a large crowd and away from us…_

"Heero?" Hilde's voice broke the perfect soldier's train of thought.

"I'm thinking," he told her. _Well, we don't necessarily have to really gamble on this one,_ he smirked. _They say that I don't know the 'real' Relena, well she obviously doesn't know me as well as she thinks she does if she's just trying to throw me off her trail with this convention thing._

"Hilde, I have an idea but I'm going to need more than just yours and Duo's help on this," he informed her.

"Care to elaborate?" suggested Hilde, completely at a loss as to what he was trying to tell her.

"Give me two weeks and I'll be able to tell you and Duo exactly what my plan of action is, okay?" Heero promised and that promise was all Hilde needed to agree before hanging up.

Flipping his phone closed, Heero went into the house only to have his cell phone go off again.

"Damn it," he cursed, flicking it open. "Yuy."

There was a moment of silence and Heero felt that perhaps the person forgot what he or she was going to say, or maybe Duo was trying to pull a prank call on him.

"Duo if this is you then you better admit now or I'm hanging up," threatened Heero; he didn't have time to play these childish games, he had a paper due in a week and then a short story due in three weeks.

No one replied still but Heero knew that someone was there by the breathing he heard and judging by the hiked up breathing pattern the person was nervous, or excited?

"Who is this?" Heero finally demanded but he just got the dial tone. Pulling the phone away from his ear, Heero just stared down at it as he wondered who could have called him and how would they have gotten his cell number, only a select group of people knew his number.

_Who could that have been?_

**Frankie-3**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**


	19. Zeches' Observations

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Okay, I have this question for everyone who has been following the 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel' fics. Do you guys think I should do both fics from Relena's point of view? As in write two fics that follow paralle with 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel' but from ****Lena****'s POV. It's just an idea that struck me one day while I was weeding and I'm asking you guys if anyone would read them if I did Relena's point of view for both fics. Or is doing Relena's POV too much and I should stop with this fic? I need feedback on this, so please, all opinions are welcomed!**

The phone rang at Quatre's office while he was looking over the current report on the L-3 colony support system.

"Quatre Winner," he simply said, he remembered Relena's comment about him saying his middle name all the time and he just decided to go without giving out his middle name all the time.

"Quatre, it's Trowa," came the Heavyarms Pilot's voice crackling through on the pay phone.

"Hey Trowa, how are you doing?" smiled Quatre as he leaned back in his chair. He enjoyed his once a week talks with Trowa, it just made it seem like they were more than just former brothers in arms.

"I'm fine, we just got on Earth in Canada about twenty minutes ago," Trowa told him. "I was wondering, since we are planning on staying in North American territory I was wondering if you could come down…for a visit."

If Quatre hadn't known better, he would have thought Trowa was trying to ask him out on a date of sorts. _That's insane,_ he thought, _Trowa__ likes that girl, Catherine, doesn't he?_

"Uh…let me check my calendar…" Quatre said as he fumbled around, knocking over little jars of pens while looking for his calendar. "Ah-ha! Yes…I will be down on Earth on May 20th, in Philadelphia for the day. So, if you want to meet sometime at night and go for dinner or something we could do that."

"Great," Trowa approved, he was smiling on the other end of the phone. It was a smile that one would not associate with Trowa normally but now it had touched his lips and he found himself unable to get rid of it. "What are you coming down for?"

"Oh just to take care of some business with an old friend." It wasn't a complete lie but then again it wasn't the complete truth either, but Quatre couldn't tell Trowa that he was going to meet Relena. What if Trowa contacted Zeches or even worse Heero and told them that Quatre was to meet her? There was no way that Quatre would dare put Relena in that position!

There was something in Quatre's tone that didn't convince Trowa that that was really all it was. _What is he hiding?_ Trowa wondered. "I can do that; just send me an e-mail when you get to Philadelphia with the place and time."

"You got it," nodded Quatre as his secretary entered his office.

"Mr. Winner, they're waiting for you in the conference room," she reported and Quatre nodded his understanding.

"Trowa, I have a meeting that I'm late for so…"

"Go ahead, Catherine is urging me to get off the phone as well," Trowa stated.

"See you Trowa."

"Bye," was all Trowa got to say before he heard the dial tone and Catherine approached him.

"So?" she inquired right away with a huge, confident grin on her face. "What was his answer?"

Grateful for his long bangs, Trowa looked away to hide the blush he felt coming on. "We're meeting in Philadelphia on May 20th," he replied.

"I knew it!" cheered Catherine, giving her baby brother a squeeze. "Come on, Manager wants us to help set up and unload the animals."

Returning to his poker faced, silent self Trowa merely nodded his head and followed Catherine out of the airport while she cheered how he had a date. Of course, Trowa would correct his sister and tell her that it was just dinner, nothing more.

* * *

"Hey _Eiji_, wait up!" Duo yelled in the halls of the University, catching up to his two friends. "Can't you two at the very least wait for me to catch up instead of keep walking and ignore the crazy dude in draq?"

"Is that what you wanted to talk to us about, _Selfie_?" Hilde inquired, Relena may not be in any of business classes but she figured it would be great for her take them for herself. "Cause if that's all you want to talk about then don't waste our time…"

"No, I was going to ask before you interrupted me, _Mindy_, was if either of you two had gotten any weird phone calls lately," Duo corrected with a serious expression.

"What kind of strange phone calls?" questioned Hilde with a bit of stutter in her voice when she spoke.

"The kind where you pick up but there's no answer and all you hear is the breathing on the other line while you ask if it's Duo or me," Heero clarified.

Duo turned to him with wide-eyes. "So you had one too then," he guessed with a hint of shock in his voice because Duo had figured that Heero would be the only that wouldn't have let on about them.

"Oh those phone calls, now that you mention it…no, I haven't," Hilde stated after giving it some thought. "The only phone calls I've had are from you two, no one has called me outside you two."

Both Duo and Heero let out a collective sigh of relief, at least they still had the advantage with no one knowing about Hilde's presence.

"Well, there was this one phone call but that was from someone with the wrong number," added Hilde and all hopes that the boys had of Hilde being their secret came crashing to the ground.

"Damn," Duo cursed.

Hilde was a bit confused for a moment but then realized where the men's thoughts were heading. "Hey, that doesn't mean that it was Relena or one of her friends. People can always dial the wrong cell number accidentally from time to time. Like this one time when I tried to call Duo and my finger hit the wrong number, I had gotten the cell phone of this porn star, Steven Kirksmith."

The boys' reaction was not what she had expected; Heero just stood there adverting his eyes while scratching the back of his head and Duo was turning red.

"What?" was all Hilde could say before Jason came running between her and Duo.

"There you are Eiji, come on before we're late for class!" Jason urged, grabbing Heero by the wrist and dragging him to class.

"That's right," Duo cried out as he checked his watch, "I've got to get to class!"

"You mean we've got to get to class," came Robin's voice as a blur swept by Hilde's eyes, taking Duo with it.

"What weird people," Hilde commented dryly as she glanced both ways at the nearly empty hallway.

* * *

Zeches was teaching his class about the old famous 'Harry Potter' series and it seemed as though a good majority of the class was interested except for one student, Josephina-best known as Joey-Alley. She wasn't amused in the least but she was paying attention as Zeches lectured about the writing style, the word usage, and even the creativity of the series.

He knew that Joey had a male twin of sorts, Salem, who looked identical to Joey. It still amazed Zeches that two siblings who were twins, looked identically alike in everyway-except in some physical features-, and yet they behaved as complete opposites.

They weren't the only students who had been catching the Preventer's eye, no. For there was also that Jason girl, she was another interesting one with her multicolored hair and her constant questions. The girl seemed to have a thing for questioning everything Zeches spoke about, ranging from the literature topic to his personal life. How many professors had to put up with that?!

Then there were the Shellys, now there was a real brain teaser. Francis-Frankie-and Robin Shelly, from what Zeches had gathered through the Preventer files, are only cousins and yet they somehow looked identically to each other. It bothered Zeches to no end because he would sometimes find himself calling one Shelly by the others' name, not to say that he didn't do that with the Alleys either, but it felt odder with the cousins.

The entire handful of students simply amazed him with their relaxed and knowing gazes which could easily turn to one of innocence that could put any saint to shame. That was what made Zeches not trust them and put them at the top of his list of supposed Relenas. Even the boys were placed on that list because the Preventer didn't wish to underestimate his sister like how Heero had done before him.

Speaking of which, Heero was being constantly stubborn, not that he actually needed the young man's assistance it just would have been a little bit helpful. After all, Heero was the one who had been on the cause ever since Relena's disappearance so he may have a _slightly_ better idea of who Relena could be.

"Prof," Jason spoke up when Zeches paused for a moment, "tell me something, why did authors like J.K. Rowling feel the need to write their following books to be longer than the previous?"

Zeches sighed, as mentioned before Jason liked to ask a lot of questions and it bothered the Preventer to no end. "I cannot tell you that one Jason for that is going into the minds of the author…" he began to answer but the girl decided that she wasn't done.

"I mean really, what's the point of writing a book that is nearly a thousand or more pages long? Just to prove that you can write excessively long books that are filled with a bunch of who-cares information and events that have no point later? Granted, Tolkien, the brilliant writer he was hundreds of years ago, his book "Lord of the Rings" was over a thousand pages long and had some moments in there that held no meaning but he didn't write a series that went on for several books that kept getting longer and longer. And another thing…"

"We see your point Ms. Collins, you may stop your one-sided argument now for we are all very impressed with your persuasive talents. Now, please allow me to continue this class as I feel fit," interrupted Zeches, drumming his fingers on his podium.

"Go ahead, no one's holding you back but yourself," she shrugged.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Zeches continued on with his lecture. "As I was about to say…"

**Let me make this clear, I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST THE 'HARRY POTTER' BOOKS! Okay, the opinions expressed by the character Jason are not my own so do not attack me if you are a 'Harry Potter' fan. Just wanted to get that cleared up.**

**Frankie-3**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**

**Jason-1**


	20. The Girl'

Get Rel

NOTE:  I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**THIS QUESTION IS FOR THE REVIEWERS WHO HAVE NOT GIVEN ME AN ANSWER.  SO, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REPLY IF YOU HAVE GIVEN ME AN ANSWER.**

**Do you guys think I should do both fics from Relena's point of view?  As in write two fics that follow parallel with 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel' but from ****Lena****'s POV.  It's just an idea that struck me one day while I was weeding and I'm asking you guys if anyone would read them if I did Relena's point of view for both fics.  Or is doing Relena's POV too much and I should stop with this fic?  I need feedback on this, so please, all opinions are welcomed!**

Duo could say one thing that he had learn from this little-oh what would one call it?-'mission' and that was to hate the weekends.  It was Saturday and it was the 'sleepover day'.  He shuddered at the thought.

_Wouldn't they think that they're just a wee bit too old for sleepover?_ Duo thought as he entered the Collins' house.  That's right, the sleepover was over at Jason's house this weekend and Bobby had dragged 'Selfie' along.

_All I've got to say is that Relena has some interesting taste in friends if these are the sort of people she considers to be her friends,_ 'Selfie' commented while sitting down on the couch beside 'Mindy', waiting for the movie to start.

"What are we watching?" Hilde whispered in Duo's ear.

"Some movie called…" the God of Death had to pause as he searched his memory for the title of the movie.  He knew that Joey had announced what it was but he just couldn't quite remember the name.  "Uh…um…I don't remember."

Joey sat down on the floor in front of her brother, who sat beside Hilde.  There was such excitement and eagerness in her eyes that Duo almost compared her to an eight year old sitting in front of the T.V. watching early morning cartoons.  Joey sat cross-legged with her elbows propped on her knees and her face resting on her fists as she watched the previews; of course she had unconsciously opened her mouth and was gapping at the screen.

"Salem, what is this movie that we are watching?" Hilde inquired to the brother.

"It's called 'An Assembly Such as This', it's the first part of this 'Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman' trilogy of movies and books.  Unfortunately my sister has this fetish for Jane Austen and she is completely…how should I put this?-obsessed with Pride and Prejudice, claiming that it's the best romance ever written," Salem replied.

"It is the best romance ever written," corrected Joey.

Duo could just imagine Joey being a cat and her tail swishing back and forth in her eagerness.

"Please tell me that this is not going to be some sappy romance," groaned Duo as he rested his head on the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling.

"Nah, it's a comedy romance basically but the second movie is excellent with the mystery, adventure-ish plot line.  Unfortunately, we have to watch the first movie before going onto the second movie," Salem assured as he began to look around the room.  "Hey Jason, where's your guest?"

Jason looked up from her place on the floor and looked about the room to find that Eiji was once again not present after she had spent the entire afternoon trying to get him to promise to watch the movie with them.

"That damn boy," she growled, getting to her feet and stepping between the masses of bodies that littered the floor of her living room.  "Excuse me, pardon me."

"Hey!  Ow!" cried out some of the guests as Jason stepped over or on them.  "Down in front!"

Once out of the living room and squeezing past the couple of college kids that crowded around the doorway, Jason stumbled up the stairs to the second floor.

"That boy better be sick, sleeping, or dying when I find him," she muttered under her breath, opening the door and marching up the stairs to the attic.  "Eiji-!  Oh…"

'Eiji' was there alright, and he was perfectly fine, as he quickly hid something under his mattress before turning to face Jason.  Despite having been living in the same house as him, Jason had never truly gotten to see the boy in a vulnerable state of being like how he looked then.

"Eiji, are you okay?" Jason questioned as she approached him and sat at the end of the bed.  Since there was no electricity in the attic the only sources of light given to Jason were the single candle and moon, so 'Eiji's' facial features were hidden fairly well.

He hadn't answered her question so Jason assumed that something was wrong.

"Eiji…" she began leaning forward to try to catch his eyes.  "Eiji, it's me, Jason."  People may have thought that Jason having to tell 'Eiji' who she was might be weird, she had only done it because she didn't want him thinking she was someone like that mystery girl that she had heard so much about through Joey who had heard it from Jackson who had heard it all from Robin.

As mentioned before, nothing was sacred in this community.

Heero knew who was on the bed with him.  _Or do you?_ a sudden thought struck him.

It was one of those rare moments as Heero bit his lower lip to ponder on this woman that sitting in front of him.  She held that concerned look in her eyes that Heero had seen so many times in the eyes of Relena, that look irked him to no ends.  Why should anyone be worried about him, he was the Perfect Soldier?

"I'm fine Jason," he lied.  How was he fine when he had just been staring at several pictures that he taken from that box of treasures?  Of course he wasn't supposed to remove them for they were 'evidence' but he felt that the evidence room wasn't going to be any more empty without the pictures.

"Liar," accused Jason, scotching toward the male.  "Come on, you can talk to me, I promise not to tell anyone."

In return, Heero gave her a raised eyebrow to tell her of his doubts.

With a sigh and the roll of her eyes, Jason raised her hand and made the girls' scout sign.  "Girls' scout honor, I won't tell anyone else and everything said in here will remain in here.  Nothing leaves this room," she promised but there was still doubt in Heero's eyes.

"You were a girl scout?" he inquired.

Jason made an offended sound but said, "Only for one year, the other girls weren't exactly friendly to me."

Knowing that Jason would not stop until Heero told her something he just shrugged.  "I'm just having trouble with my British class," he offered but it was a complete lie, he was doing perfectly fine in Zeches' class.

"Oh…"  She sounded disappointed as she looked down at the bedding.  "That's all, and here I thought that just maybe you had been thinking about the girl that got away."

The mask of indifference had remained on Heero's face but he knew that his eyes gave him away, as always, for Jason's own eyes widen with anticipation.  That anticipation was even more emphasized by Jason pulling her legs onto the bed and crossing them.

"Spill, tell me what's on your mind and perhaps I can help you sort it all out," she stated, propping her elbows on her knees and face on her hands.

Heero didn't bother to stifle a groan.  "Where to begin?" he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Well, let's start with how you feel about this girl?" suggested Jason.

That was not exactly what Heero meant but she was obviously fishing for answers as to what his feelings were towards Relena.  There was one major problem with that question though, how was he supposed to answer it if he didn't know?

"I just feel protective over her as I had already told Robin and you may already know that," he replied firmly.

Seeing that 'Eiji' didn't have any focused direction to analyze his emotions, Jason took it upon herself to direct him.  "Do like to be with her, whether it be talking or just being in her presence?" she inquired.

The present tense was not lost upon Heero, in fact it actually caused Heero to once again wonder if perhaps he was living in the same house as Relena and he didn't know it.  If he was then his dilemma was how to know for certain without directly asking and giving himself completely away, especially should Jason happen not to be Relena?

_What is something very distinct about Relena that she would never know?_ Heero wondered, pretending to be thinking about the answer to the question.  _Come on Yuy, you have only protected the girl in the shadows and out in the open for the last two and a half years, surely there has been habits you have noticed._

"Eiji?" Jason interrupted, poking him in the shoulder until he threw her a little glare of annoyance.  "If you really have to think on it then that's just sad, I would have thought it to be a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer."

"Her presence was never not wanted," he told her.

Jason sat back for a moment, _Never not?  Okay…two negatives equal a positive, right?  So that means that her presence was wanted.  The dude just had to put it in such a way to make me think, didn't he?_

"Okay, did you ever hang out with her at all?" she inquired but seeing Heero's eyebrow rise in question she elaborated.  "Did you ever take her to the movies, out to dinner, go out dancing, or go see a play together?  Or anything of the such?"

How was Heero supposed to answer this one?  He hadn't taken Relena to anything because he was not the driver, but he did go to dinners and theaters with her, plus he did dance with her at certain fundraisers or charities.  So, did Heero 'hang out' with Relena?  Yes and no.

"Sort of," he responded in a voice of uncertainty.

"Sort of?  How do you 'sort of' hang out?" Jason laughed.  "Come on, did you ever dance with her?"

"Yes."

"Go to the movies with her?"

"No, that was always another friend of hers," Heero replied knowing full well that Hilde or Duo had been the ones to go to the movies with Relena, when she was the Vice Foreign Minister.

"Oh.  Well then how about to dinner?  Did you ever take her out to dinner?" Jason continued.

"You know what; I think we have best get downstairs.  Don't think that I don't know that you came up here to drag me down to watch whatever movie was brought over today," Heero stated, he needed to buy himself sometime to do more thinking and the movie just might give him that time.

Jason pouted, pushing her lower lip out further than she needed to.  "Aw.  Well tell me this much at least Eiji, do you wish that you had gone after her rather than letting her get away?"

Heero was silent for a moment but not because he was thinking rather just to assess Jason.  "Yes."

**Frankie-3**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**

**Jason-1**


	21. Reflections

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Thank you all for expressing your opinions on the whole ****Lena**** side story idea. I will beginning Lena's tale when school starts, so that won't be until sometime in September, more than enough time for me to hopefully finish off a fan fic or two.**

**Also, for those interested, yes, I do enjoy confusing you guys so much. What can I say, it's so much fun!**

So, the movie was not that bad of an idea after all, considering it allowed him three hours to think while pretending to pay attention to the movie. Heero just sat there on the floor thinking during the entire movie, not because the movie was uninteresting or anything, quite the contrary really, but rather he just needed time to reflect without interruption.

It was a long reflection indeed of just sitting on the floor squashed between Jason and Vicki, who had no scruples with leaning against him and snuggling into his arm. Heero wanted to cringe but instead he just swallowed hard and continued with his thoughts.

_Everyone keeps questioning me of how I feel or have felt about Relena, why? Why were there ever any rumors about me and her to begin with? Certainly she has always had this sort of school-girl crush on me from the war and I had her intrigued from the first moment, but I thought she got over that in time…_Momentarily Heero's thoughts were interrupted as Joey tripped over his leg trying to get to the kitchen for a soda.

"Sorry about that Eiji," she smiled apologetically as she got up and tip-toed her way through the masses of people.

_Seriously though, why does everyone seem to be under the impression that there's some sort of 'chemistry' between Relena and I? I was her bodyguard and she just happened to be the representative I was assigned to, end of story. Yet I never requested a transfer, but than again, Relena was probably the easiest client to protect, when there weren't possible assassin attempts or threats. Also, Une rarely assigned me to someone else unless it was of the utmost emergency. Why, when she would easily send Hilde or Duo off to someone else's aid in a snap,_ Heero contemplated.

"Moron!" Robin yelled out, tossing popcorn at the T.V. at a tall, dark haired man speaking to his blond male friend. They were now watching the second installment of the trilogy and Heero had a fairly good idea of what was going on.

"Hey, cool it man," Bobby grunted tossing some of his M&Ms at the other boy. "Jeez, it's only a movie dude. Besides, I think he's better off without the chick. I mean look at her!"

Jackson promptly slapped Bobby over the head. "Speak for yourself, I think Julie Ewile is pretty hot."

"Like I'd speak for you," returned Bobby, rubbing the back of his head.

"Shut up both of you, this is a good part," commanded Joey, sitting back down in front of her brother, handing him a soda and opening her own.

_And these are Relena's friends? How in the world did she ever become friends with them without my knowing it…?_ Heero knew that he already knew the answer to his own question. _The same way she remained friends with the 'For Rel' band, through e-mails and phone calls._

It truly bothered Heero to know that Relena had not told him about her friends before the war. Granted, he had never asked since he had always assumed that those girls that he saw at the St. Gabriel Institution were Relena's only friends.

_Guess this should teach me not to be so presumptuous next time._ Heero's train of thought came to a sudden halt at the last thought. _Next time,_ the words repeated themselves in his mind. Would there ever be a next time or was this going to be the finale?

_If I don't catch up with her after this well I simply leave her alone?_ The thought had never struck him before but now that it had it was time to confront possibly one of Heero Yuy's worst fears, giving in. _She has been able to evade me and the others while concealing her true identity under some façade…_ Was that what this really was? All the acting that Relena did, was it truly herself or was it all that, acting?

That was always the confusing part of the entire situation, was this truly the real Relena Salimar Darlian-Peacecraft or was it another façade like the one he had seen her display at meetings or conventions? Did anyone know who the real Relena was? Did Relena know who she really was?

Sally and Noin had both at one time or another, had come up to him to tell him to lay off Relena and give her a break once in awhile since she wasn't being given the life most teenagers get.

_"Listen Heero," Sally told him one time while she was staying with Relena and him in __Russia__ a year ago. They were at the bar and Sally had ordered him a water, which was not exactly what Heero 'needed' by took anyways. "You need to loosen up on Relena, she is obviously having a difficult time right now and she needs a few days to herself. That girl, I sometimes pity her."_

_"What for?" Heero grunted, sipping his bottle of water._

_Sally gave him an exasperated look. "I suppose you wouldn't understand it but most teenagers like yourself and especially like Relena use these high school years to discover what they really want to do with their lives and to discover a bit of who they are, where they belong among family, friends, and the world in general. Relena is not given this chance since her position is decided for her despite her lack of education, she now feels the need to be very mature, probably more mature than how she feels. And you, you keep pushing at her. So, loosen up a bit before you crush her," she advised him._

Leaning back a bit, Heero rubbed his eye a bit. Was that what his presence was doing, crushing her? Was it his presence that was keeping Relena from really being herself, or was the fact that he didn't know who she could be that was making her able to reveal her true self?

He just didn't know.

"'Let it be known, that I declare _The Roquet _is a masterpiece and that mine, _The Sphinx_, is now in retirement,'" quoted Joey. "'Good show Darcy, very well done.'"

"Lord, someone save us all," groaned Salem only to be nudged by his sister's elbow.

"Shut up," she hissed at him.

Salem leaned forward a bit and shouted, "Gladly, when you learn how to keep from quoting while watching the blasted movie!"

"Hush both of you or I'll turn off the movie," Jason threatened, successfully silencing the siblings and turning back to the movie. "What is '_The Roquet'_ anyways?"

"It's that big cloth of folds and knots around Darcy's neck," Joey explained.

"Oh," was all Jason said in response before turning to Eiji and muttering, "Is she talking about that huge, obnoxious thing?"

Holding back a snort, Heero nodded. "Then why didn't she just say that?" Jason mumbled, sitting back.

_"Heero," Relena called him out of his little corner of her office, "what exactly is Mr. Mullens' trying to say?"_

_Taking the offered proposal sheet of paper, Heero quickly read over it and then handed it back to her. It was clearly written out what the man was proposing, how could anyone not understand it?_

_"Is he trying to propose that we set up some sort of system where we use the old mobile suites in the construction of colonies rather than disposing of them?" she inquired, looking up at Heero for confirmation._

_The only sign was a curt nod._

_Leaning forward in her chair, Relena grabbed a blank piece of paper and pen then began to jot down her response to the proposal. "Then why didn't he just say so without having to use all those huge, 'flourishing' words as though I'm a human dictionary? Although," she added as an after thought, "I do have you for that."_

_Heero glared his disapproval at the statement, and Relena noticed it._

_"I was only joking," she told him, and he knew that she wasn't lying to get out of his disapproval._

"Oh…Dy is so cute," drooled Vicki, leaving Heero's arm to prop her face on her fists and stare dreamingly at the television screen.

"Aw, don't worry Eiji, she'll do that until the end of the movie or fall asleep before the end," assured Jason teasingly.

"I think I'll survive the loss," he returned. _So, will you leave her be?_ How could he leave her be when he was so determined to catch up with her, but he was no longer in want of returning her to the life she had before. _Whatever makes her happy, even if it means that she wants me out of her life,_ he decided.

How could Relena ever want Heero Yuy out of her life, after all, she loved him right? _Does she really?_ Heero found himself suddenly wondering in earnest. Reaching a hand underneath him, Heero fingered the edge of her final letter to him at the train station in Italy. She had never really said in there if she loved him only that 'I think you have an idea of how deep my feelings for you are' and 'I'm not going wait around any longer for you to suddenly become my knight in shining armor'.

Those statements could have multiple translations and not all of them lead to her loving him.

_Why should I care if she still had that school-girl crush on me?_ Heero growled in frustration. So many why questions but with no answers. _Have I not made it clear in the past that she was nothing more to me than a client that I had promised to kill and to protect?_

Indeed, the former Zero pilot had made that statement clear to the young Vice Foreign Minister and she had seemed to have gotten that message. _So, why do I feel so crushed that no longer be taking my…_Heero searched his brain for the right adjective, _bullshit._ That one word summed it up fairly well.

"How is a waltz indecent?" Robin questioned as the aforementioned dark haired guy stared at a ballroom filled with couples waltzing around. "Seriously, it's possibly the most innocent dances of all time, next to square, round, and line dancing."

"What the lambada? Or is that some kind of dirty dancing?" challenged Jackson.

Robin raised an eyebrow at his friend. "Do you _seriously_ want me to answer that one?" he offered.

Noting the implicating tone, Jackson backed down. "No, that's alright, I don't need you to traumatize me anymore than I already am."

With a shake of his head, Heero returned to his earlier thoughts. _What is it about Relena that has kept me coming after her? I know that I have vowed to protect her but why have I always stayed by her side or chased after her? Why has she always accepted me for who I am when all I have done is rej…correct her assumptions?_ Again, the questions were rolling off his thought tongue.

_How come it's now that I actually care about Relena's happiness?_ Wasn't that what he had thought earlier, 'Whatever makes her happy'? When had that come on to him?

_"Heero, you question how I know if Relena is in love with you," Noin was talking to him over the vid-phone one night as she called in for a report to give Zeches._

_"Hn," he had grunted, flipping through the schedule for the next day. "What about it?"_

_Noin narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, "Because she once mentioned to me that she didn't care that you reject her affections as long as you were happy."_

Was that it? Was that how she truly felt towards him? If so than, _I'm in love with Relena._

**Anything with the beside it indicates references to Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman Trilogy, mainly the second book, Duty and Desire.**

**Frankie-3**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**

**Jason-1**


	22. Relena Sighting

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Okay, school has started for me again. So, I no longer will be able to do weekly updates for a while, I will try to update every other weekend but I can't give you any guarantees so just bare with me. And I will have ****Lena****'s tale out shortly. Thank you all!**

Somewhere in the middle of the second movie half, if not the entire, room had fallen asleep using each others' shoulders, knees, or the backs of furniture as pillows. Even Heero was used as a pillow by Vicki until he cautiously got up and went to his bed to sleep.

Even though he had been about the last person to fall asleep, Heero was the first to wake the next morning. Despite the fact that he was no longer a soldier Heero just couldn't break the habit of waking at the crack of dawn, which most people would find inhuman.

Not liking the feeling of being in a house filled with Relena's allies, Heero slipped on a fresh pair of jeans and shirt then went outside with the intent of walking around the block a couple of times.

Despite the fact that he had actually admitted, in his mind, that he loved Relena it just didn't seem to add up in his head. The only examples of love he had to compare his with were from a few songs that he had heard and the Noin-Zeches relationship. Everyone working as a preventer knew of Noin's longstanding love for the older Peacecraft child but also of how Zeches was either blind or didn't wish to commit.

Heero couldn't really relate to any of these which led him to question if he was truly in love.

"I care for her but that does not mean I'm in love with her. I don't need to be around her all the time but I always need to know if she's okay," Heero pointed out to himself then argued, "then again, I did make that vow to protect her so I this need to know if she is alright could be from that."

Then there were people that described being in love as thinking that the person who you were in love with was the most beautiful thing. Heero could never say that Relena was a beauty; was she pretty? Yes, but he never once thought that anything article of clothing brought out her eyes or anything, or that she looked very sensual in an outfit. Not even at charities when she would have to dress up did he ever find himself thinking that.

Relena had never been a person to be very sensual but rather she liked being very innocent and wearing something that she felt comfortable in. It was bad enough that all the eyes of the press were always upon her, she certainly didn't wish to attract anymore attention with her attires. That was why she wore long skirts or dress pants often to work.

_"This is the workplace, it's not a place-to me-to pick up a date or attract the infatuations of others,"_ he had once heard Relena explain to Hilde one day when Hilde was trying to get Relena to wear a shorter, sassier skirt.

Other people often wrote love as being unable to get that person out of your head. "Well," Heero commented, "I can't get her out of my head but that's due to the fact that I'm trying to figure her out."

Heero almost laughed at himself, this was something that the preventer shrink would have had a field day with. Mrs. Comenski had been trying for the last two years to open Heero up and failing miserably. Now, he had opened up to himself and what did he do? He tried to bury it by analyzing his actions and motives, it wasn't quite working and it worried Heero.

He didn't know how to handle emotions and now he didn't have anyone to help him without some form of teasing.

With a sigh, Heero looked up to find that he was in front of Jason's house again. He had gone around the block already? He must have been in thought longer than he had thought he was.

"What am I to do when I do catch up with Relena…?" he began to wonder as he unknowingly stared up at one of the windows of the house.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door to the room with the said window opened and in stepped a person with shoulder length hair. Seeing this Heero was about to look away, even though the shade was down, as the shirt was coming off.

_What were you doing?_ he chided himself about to go inside, but he took one last look up to the window.

The person was done putting the shirt on and was currently about to open the shade. As the shade came rolling up the person looked outside the window.

Everything stopped, including all rational thought, as Heero looked up at the face of the one person he most desired to find. _Relena…_

All Heero wanted to do was yell out her name but apparently his vocal cords weren't working, leaving his mouth to just flop up and down soundlessly.

Unfortunately, it had been Heero's brain to stop and not Relena's; she looked down at him and her eyes widened with fear before she dashed away from the window and out of the room.

"Relena!" He had meant to really shout it but instead her name came out as a mutter of disbelief. It took Heero a couple of nanoseconds to realize that this was he chance to get her.

Quickly Heero jumped onto the porch, inside the house, and bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time until he got to the top. "Rele…na?" he murmured as he found the hallway to be completely empty and all the doors but the bathroom to be closed.

_She must be in one of the other rooms,_ he decided about to open the first door, Jason's dad's room, but Heero quickly withdrew his hand as he heard another door start to open.

Out from Jason's room filed Frankie, Robin, Salem, Joey, Ricky, and Jason. They were apparently all laughing about something, thus most of their faces were red and Joey was wiping some stray tears from her eye.

The first instinct Heero had was to demand 'where is she' but he knew that that would only confirm any suspicions that they obviously had of him, Relena's wide eyes proved that much to him. So to keep the group from inquiring any questions like, 'Eiji, what are you doing up here?' or 'Eiji, are you okay you look like you saw a ghost', Heero began to go up to the attic area.

Stepping onto the first step he decided to play stupid and still make inquires about Relena.

"Who was that girl?" he spoke up, interrupting the groups chatter.

Everyone exchanged questioning, bewildered looks until someone spoke up.

"What girl? Cause you know, there are quite a few girls in the house right now and it's kind of hard to tell you who this girl was without clarification," Robin pointed out to him.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes in frustration, Heero clarified a bit, "I saw a girl with dark blond hair in the bathroom."

That didn't seem to be enough clarification for them. "Are you sure it wasn't Frankie or Robin?" Joey offered.

"Are you even sure it was a girl?" Salem added and Joey nodded her agreement.

Why were they questioning him like that? Of course he knew it was a girl, he saw her face more than anything else but he couldn't quite say that since they would argue that some males had fairly feminine faces.

"I saw the outline of breasts, so yes, I'm sure it was a girl," he lied. He had seen nothing apart from her hair and face, but it would make them stop questioning what gender this person was.

"So then it could have been me," Frankie shrugged as though it was no big deal.

_True,_ remarked Heero, holding the girl's gaze. "This girl had shoulder-length hair so it couldn't have been you." Heero had been looking for some sort of flinch or other tell-tale sign that would have proved to him that Frankie was Relena.

There was none. Frankie held his gaze evenly, not even challenging him to prove it.

'Then you must have been seeing things because Frankie and Robin are the only two with dark blond hair, unless Vicki recently died hers, and none of them have shoulder-length hair," Ricky stated.

Heero had never talked to the short boy before but he knew of Ricky through Ringo. Apparently Ricky was the shorter, younger brother who had the nasty habit of horning his 'thieving' skills because he wished to become a master thief. Whether that was true or not, it didn't matter but something was off with the guy. Heero could just feel it as Ricky looked up at him with a lopsided, cocky grin.

Feeling slightly disappointed, Heero reminded himself that there was never much hope of them telling him anything useful since they were Relena's friends and they were all very willing to help hide her among them. Still, he had hoped one of them would have slipped up a bit to give him a clue as to which one of them was Relena.

_What if she's still hiding in one of the rooms trying to put on her disguise?_ his mind suggested. It wasn't that farfetched of an idea; in fact, Relena could very well be hiding in one of the rooms still, just waiting for him to leave so that she could come out without having to be under his questioning gaze.

"Why do you ask anyways, Eiji?" Joey inquired with a cocked head.

Shrugging Heero offered lamely, "Curious is all."

"Oh…" was all that Joey had replied but Heero could tell that she wasn't buying it as she eyed him. He held firm under her open scrutiny.

"Well, sorry to have disappointed you but there's so such girl here that we know of. Perhaps your eyes were playing tricks on you from the lack of sleep you must be getting. How can you get up so damn early in the morning?" Jason declared before heading down the stairs with her friends in tow. "Now what were you saying earlier Salem?"

Standing on the stairs for a few seconds, Heero stepped up a step or two then sat down and waited. If Relena had truly been hiding in one of the rooms she should walk by the stairs anytime soon and then he'll have caught her.

So there Heero sat for five minutes but no one passed by the stairs. It didn't disappoint Heero because it had in a way narrowed down his suspects of possible Relenas but at the same time it still put him at square one. Even though Relena had not passed by the stairs, it didn't mean that she wasn't still hiding in one of the rooms.

In either case, one thing was true, Relena knew who he was or at least had a good guess. That look of pure fear that he saw in her eyes when they came upon him made it quite clear; she had figured out that either he was 'Eiji' or that 'Eiji' was a preventer.

Giving up on waiting, Heero went up to his room while beginning to formulate a plan in his mind. He needed to start getting it together now because he only had a matter of weeks before he could execute it.

Picking up his cell phone, Heero speed-dialed a number and waited after three rings before someone had answered the phone.

"Hello?" was all Heero had to hear to know it was the exact person he wished to speak to.

"Zeches, I have a plan on how to get Relena."

**Frankie-3**

**Robin-5**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**

**Jason-1**


	23. Disagreements

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**You know what, it's hard to try to update every other week during marching band. Thankfully, marching season is over with and I'm back to writing again. I'll try to keep regular updates to the best of my abilities.**

**Thanks for your understanding people!**

For once the café was practically empty with a limited amount of people, but thankfully none of Relena's friends were present. This was especially good for Heero was he recited his finding of Relena earlier that morning to Hilde and Duo. Of course, he left out the part of calling Zeches with a plan.

"You what?!" the God of Death exclaimed, forgetting his feminine persona until reminded by Hilde, who delivered a swift kick to his shin under the café table.

"Are you certain it was Relena?" Hilde questioned Heero in a quieter voice than what Duo had been using previously.

Heero gave her the look that simply stated, 'You dare to question my judgment?' It was enough to make Hilde realize how ridiculous a question it was to ask the Perfect Soldier.

"Well, who do you suppose Relena's in disguise as?" Duo inquired.

Heero shrugged, "If I had it my way I would almost assume it to be…"

"Vicki," offered Duo in a teasing manner. He knew that Heero despised Vicki's open affection for the perfect soldier, especially in front of other people.

The 'Heero Yuy glare' was turned to Duo now, causing the braided boy to grin innocently. "No, not Vicki but rather I was thinking more or less Frankie or Robin."

Hilde's face scrunched up in a sour expression, she obviously did not agree with Heero's view. "Learn from the past Heero, Relena's not stupid enough to take on a disguise of a person who just 'happens' to have the same hair color as her. Besides, from what I know, for a fact, that Robin loves men," Hilde argued.

Duo sharply turned his head to Hilde in surprise. "You mean that Robin is a…a…oh what are they called?" he interrupted, trying to think of the word while tapping his head.

"Homosexual?" Heero suggested, evenly.

"That's the word!"

Rolling her eyes, Hilde calmed herself before nodding. "From what I have gathered from Jake and Joey's older sister, Kaitlyn, have been telling me. You guys remember Adam from 'For Rel'?" explained Hilde, receiving nods from both males. "Well, apparently, Robin has a crush on him. So, unless Robin went through some kind of sex change, I think it's safe to assume that he's a homosexual."

"Wow," Duo commented, glancing at Heero to see a glint of disappointment in his eyes. "Relena sure knows how to pick her friends."

"That still leaves Frankie," Heero pointed out, indifferently but Duo could tell that the perfect soldier was rather irritated that his choice of Robin was proven to be wrong.

This time Hilde had nothing to say in disagreement but Duo did.

"Now that I'm not too sure about because look at Frankie's dress and stuff, she's so much of a tomboy that not even Relena, in all her acting abilities, could pull off being a tomboy," Duo commented. The former Zero pilot gave the braided boy an annoyed stared, making Duo nervous. "Well," Duo added as an afterthought, "we have no idea what her acting skills are, of course."

"Joey," Hilde spoke up.

Heero shook his head, "Relena's not Asian even though she grew up in Japan. Joey is obviously Asian in some form."

Hilde was not about to back down from this suggestion. "That doesn't mean that Relena's not _acting_ the role of an Asian girl…"

"Her skill, I highly doubt, is that advanced," Heero interjected before Hilde could finish her defense. "Putting all arguments aside let us just concentrate on these people: Frankie, Jason, _Robin_," Duo winced, "and Salem."

"Salem?" Duo echoed. "Why _Salem_? He's a guy!"

"So is Robin," Hilde reminded.

"Still…"

Ignoring 'Selfie's' complaints, Heero stated, "Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Good," Heero nodded as a smile smirk began to cross his lips, "because I have a plan on how to catch Relena."

* * *

Sitting in class, Duo was oblivious as to what the teacher was saying since the former Preventer was too busy thinking back to what Heero had told him about seeing Relena.

_I still can't believe it was actually her and that she might have recognized Heero despite his 'disguise', _Duo thought, leaning back in his seat and tapping a pen absently against his desk.

Most people who did not know the degree of friendship were usually the ones who did not know that it had been Duo who had started most of the rumors about Heero and Relena being a couple. Duo felt justified in spreading those rumors as he had been the person there to witness Relena stepping between himself and Heero, even after Heero had had a gun pointed at her head!

It had to be love, or a school girl's infatuation with the unattainable. Either way, Duo thought that two of his best friends should try to be a couple especially when Relena showed up at St. John's High School looking for Heero. That gave away her girlish crush.

_Maybe it had always been an infatuation instead of love,_ Duo analyzed but then shook his head as he recalled that as time progressed Relena's feelings did not waver, that was plain to see when both Heero and Duo were assigned to Ms. Darlian as her bodyguards.

_Duo grinned at Heero before opening the door, "You're not going to back out on me now, are you?" The glare Heero gave him was all Duo needed. "Didn't think so."_

_Opening the door, Duo and Heero stepped into Lady Une's office with only Lady Une standing to greet them. It was obvious Relena was not pleased about changing bodyguards again as she kept her back to them and was tense._

_It wasn't until Lady Une was about to clear her throat that Relena rose and turned to the Preventers, the expression on her face was unforgettable as she broke out into a huge smile for a moment before composing herself. _

_"Hello Duo," she said shaking Duo's hand professionally but Duo decided to give the young Princess a wink to make the introduction a bit informal. "Heero." _

Just the manner in which she had spoken Heero's name was all Duo needed to hear to confirm his suspicions…Duo suddenly jolted in his seat a bit as an idea struck him hard.

_Does she even still love Heero anymore, especially after that whole Sylvia thing?_

Not bothering to dwell upon _that_ topic too long-Duo still couldn't believe that Heero had actually dated Sylvia instead of Relena, Duo shrugged it off as he reminded himself, "She said she still loved him in that letter she left Heero."

Subconsciously, Duo's eyes traveled over to Jason then to Robin; he repeated this motion a couple of times before resting his eyes upon Jason.

_Could any of them _really_ be Relena?_ he wondered, squinting at Jason to see any noticeable marks labeling her as Relena. _But it could actually be anyone…No! I don't give a damn about the blasted speculations! One of those people is Relena and I'm betting it's really Vicki. She avoids us like the plaque whenever she can, but Heero said…Ah! Who gives a damn what he said?!_

"Hey, Selfie, look alive there girl, you look like you're falling asleep on us there," Robin muttered over his shoulder at Duo.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Duo straightened up in his seat and muttered, "Thanks, what'd I miss?"

Robin grinned, "Just some history on Rag Time, I'll lend you the tape after class to listen to for notes."

"Thanks." Despite Duo's displeasure about having to go to college, Duo was grateful for the assistance he got from Relena's friends instead of the competitive feel most other students gave. Plus, as an added bonus, he got to observe Relena's friends.

**Frankie-5**

**Robin-6**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-2**

**Jason-1**


	24. Flight to Philadelphia

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**For those who are wondering or have been wondering, yes, this is the last Relena-run-away fic in the 'For Rel' and 'Get Rel' series thingy. This fic will have a complete ending whether or not I have Heero catch up with Relena or not. I'm not going to keep going around in circles.**

There it was the pounding of impatient feet as someone came running down the hall and up the stairs. Heero knew this because he had felt the vibration through the floor, he had heard the door open, and Jason was standing at the top of the stairs starring at home with a flushed face.

"That must have been quite the run," Duo commented, looking up from his composition book at the girl. Just because the former preventers were temporarily going to college didn't mean they got out of doing homework.

A huge grin broke on Jason's face before she spontaneously ran over to the bed and plopped herself down between the books. Lying on her back, Jason chuckled a bit at the ceiling in amazement.

Duo glanced over at Heero only to get a blank stare from his friend. What was going on?

"Do you guys know what today is?" Jason asked breathlessly, a teasing tone creeping into her voice and into her manner.

"Friday, May 19. Why?" Duo answered, shifting his fake breasts about a bit to make them level and more centered. Not that Jason noticed because she was too entranced with the ceiling and her own thoughts.

A blissful glint in her eyes could be seen before she closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "Think about it," she told him."

"I'm thinking," lied Duo as he gave Heero this 'what is she talking about?' expression.

Jason hit Duo's knee, it was hard to not know that he had been sarcastic about thinking.

"I'll give you a hint, plane trip," Jason sighed.

Watching the girl, Heero saw that Jason was almost ready to fall asleep on his bed. Her face was cuddling into his covers and she just looked simply tired from the past week with all her classes, work, and preparations for…something that Heero was unaware of.

"We still stomped," Duo stated after a moment.

At first Jason didn't respond, causing the men to think that she might have fallen asleep on the bed. Exchanging looks with Heero, who obviously didn't know what to do, Duo bent over and poked at Jason's shoulder.

"Jason?"

"Mmh, I'm still awake Selfie. Here's another clue then, what has Joey, Frankie, Robin, and Salem been ranting on about for the past couple weeks?" Jason groaned, turning on her side a bit.

"I'm at a loss," Duo declared, defeated.

Heero shook his head; leave it to Duo to not pay too much attention to what others talked about. "She's talking about a convention in Philadelphia tomorrow," he spoke up, surprising Duo.

"Exactly!" Jason nodded, her eyes snapping open and her sitting up, back against the wall and sitting cross-legged. "We leave early tonight and we're not going to be back until early Sunday. I just can't wait!"

There was just something in that genuine giddiness that he had only seen a few times in the eyes of Relena and Hilde. It was a bit unnerving because it once again made Heero wonder if Jason and Relena were the same person…

_Stop this!_ Heero commanded himself, shaking his head a bit. _If you keep doing that then you'll never find Relena and tomorrow could just be your big chance. Hopefully Zeches did his part._

"Why," Duo questioned Jason, "are you so happy to go? Do you have someone that you're meeting there or something?" He had meant to be teasing but Jason had taken the question seriously, sobering up a bit.

"Actually, yeah, I am meeting a friend there," Jason answered, amazing the two guys.

With wide eyes, Duo glanced at Heero, he had noticed it too. There was someone who knew about Relena, now it was a matter of who it was that knew about Relena and was not telling.

Sensing that somehow the atmosphere in the room had changed, Jason tensed up a bit waiting for the onslaught of questions to bombard her. Thankfully, the two former preventers never got the chance to question Jason as the doorbell rang.

"Oh, that's Joey with the car. See you guys Sunday, and Eiji, I apologize now in case my dad pulls anymore embarrassing stunts while I'm gone," Jason quickly said as she got off the bed and was ready to leave before she turned around and gave both guys a hug.

Duo had uneasily returned the hug but Heero had done anything, in fact he was a bit frightened. The last time anyone hugged him was when he had carried Relena back to her hotel room one night after she fainted. Relena had fainted because Heero tackled her to the ground as an assassin opened fire upon representatives in Germany.

Once Jason was gone did either of the guys say anything.

"Still have that ingenious plan of yours?" Duo inquired as the sound of a car taking off was heard.

"It's not ingenious but I do have a plan and I have a chore for you and Hilde to do," the former Zero pilot informed as he got off his bed and pulled out a duffle bag from under the bed.

Duo added, "You mean other than her and I searching Relena's friend's rooms for any clues?" It had at first bothered Duo, the idea of trespassing into a stranger's room and digging around for information about Relena, but now as he didn't care. "What's the new chore?"

"I want you two to find out who this person is that Jason is meeting there, family or friend, it might be Relena that she's going to meet there."

* * *

Trowa was busy packing his bag so he could get to Philadelphia in time to go out with Quatre as planned. There was just this feeling of anticipation that flared up in his body.

"Well, I suppose Relena would be proud of me," Trowa muttered, glancing in the mirror as he mentally recalled what Relena, as Salimar, had told him.

It was strange; to feel that is. During the Eves' War he had stated that his heart had been empty for quite some time and that he was unable to feel, now, over a silly dinner date…Trowa froze for a moment.

_Date?_ The simple word scared him witless. _No,_ he reminded himself, _it's not a date; we're just going to do something together as old friends, nothing more._ That was the disappointing part; they were only going as 'old friends'.

"Trowa!" Catherine called as she entered the trailer. "There you are. Are we going to Philadelphia or not? I kind of would like to go see Quatre and even go see Ms. Po again." After the Mariemaia Rebellion, Sally Po and Catherine had kept in some contact, especially since Trowa would get involved once in a while despite Catherine's disapproval.

"I'm coming Cathy," Trowa assured, looking at himself one last time in the mirror. _No need to impress anyone, _he assured, _it's just Quatre._ The assurance was not making the former Heavyarms pilot relax.

"Here goes nothing."

As Trowa was about to leave the trailer before a message on his computer popped up telling the clown that he had a message from Duo Maxwell. Opening the e-mail, Trowa scanned it as it inquired his whereabouts as well as Quatre's, apparently Quatre's secretary only said that he had taken a vacation.

Glancing at his watch, Trowa sat down in front of the computer and quickly typed his reply stating where he was and where Quatre was.

"Trowa, sometime today would be nice," Catherine uncharacteristically reminded. Trowa didn't understand women that well but he knew Catherine well enough to know that she wanted to go to Philadelphia soon so that she could actually see her friends instead of 'just miss' them.

"Coming," repeated Trowa, finishing his e-mail and sending it to Duo.

* * *

Heero met up with Zeches at the airport at 5:25 a.m. and they got their tickets, through security in less than an hour before they went to wait for their plane to Philadelphia.

"Is everything in order?" Zeches inquired as they sat waiting for their plane to arrive at 7:05.

"Duo and Hilde have already begun their search for this person who Jason said she was meeting, and they should be currently looking about for clues," Heero answered, leaving out the fact that Duo and Hilde would be invading others' bedrooms.

"Good," nodded Zeches, not bothering to question how the other two preventers came to be in Wisconsin. "You had better hope that this works Yuy or I'll arrest you for interfering in a preventer search."

Heero was not about to point out the fact that he was the one helping Zeches because in the end it didn't make a difference. He _was_ interfering in a preventer search and could very well be arrested for it.

"Don't need to worry about that, if I can't catch her this time then I'm going to let her go. She has been more than willing to get on with her life while I have not," Heero explained, pulling an envelope out his pocket.

Zeches gave the younger man a questioning glance. "You know this how?" he demanded softly.

Rather than using words, Heero handed the envelope to Zeches and had him read it. Inside the envelope was the letter from the train station in Italy that Heero had followed Relena to the last time.

_Just give me one chance to get her back and I will take that chance,_ Heero mentally implored as he closed his eyes for a moment. _This is something I truly need to do._

"Now boarding seats H-16 to H-23 for gate 37, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," came the announcement over the loud speakers.

Heero received a kick in the shins from Zeches as the older man got out of his seat, grabbing his bag. He did not have any intentions of returning to Wisconsin after this.

"That's our call Heero."

Opening up his eyes, Heero rose to his feet, stuffing his hands into his pockets as his ticket rested on the inside pocket of his jean jacket. Now he was partially mentally prepped for the day.

"This is going to one hell of a day."

"I should think so," commented Zeches dryly as they stood in line to board the plane.

_I'm going to catch you this time Relena, I have to this time._

**Frankie-4**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-1**

**Jason-3**


	25. Hello Relena

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**Count them down people, two more chapters after this one to go and I'm done with 'Get Rel'. Yes, I'm closing this fic within two more chapters and it feels great!**

What was he doing there? He was an outsider to these people, he never once read a comic in his life, he wasn't really interested in knowing about upcoming comic projects or movies. So, again, what was he doing there?

Abruptly two hands covered Quatre's eyes causing him to see only black.

_That's why I'm here,_ Quatre told himself with a smile as he felt someone's hot breath on his ear.

"Hey there stranger, did you miss me?"

He could feel her 100 megawatt, genuine smile and it just made Quatre's insides melt. She was there and everything was going to be alright, so as long as she stayed with him.

"Yes, I did miss you a lot Relena," Quatre grinned, taking his friend's hands off his eyes and turning to her. She had a hint of a blush on her face and a whole entourage of people behind her. "Whoa…"

"What?" Relena asked until she noticed who Quatre was starring at. "Yeah, they're all with me. These are my friends who I have been staying with in Wisconsin. Everyone, I want you to meet Quatre Winner, Representative of colony L-3…"

"I don't think they need to know that," Quatre interjected, he knew that she was only teasing how representatives were presented before making a speech. "Are they going to be wandering around with us the entire time?"

A couple of the girls giggled and whispered a bit amongst themselves with approving smiles on their faces. It made Quatre feel awkward, this was the first time that he was anywhere with Relena and a group of her world-wide friends.

Relena chuckled a bit, "No, they're all going to wander off by themselves and we're just going to keep in contact through walkie-talkies." To emphasize her point, Relena held up a small walkie-talkie.

"I see…"

"Channel 4, right Lena?" inquired one of the people in the group as he checked his walkie-talkie.

"That's the one."

"Great, then we'll see you inside, maybe. Give us a call if something goes wrong," winked the person, adjusting the walkie-talkie. Each member of the group gave Relena a kiss on the cheek before entering the convention area.

When everyone else was gone Quatre gave Relena a questioning look. "Lena? So, why can't I call you that? Is it some sort of special name given to your closest friends?"

Giving Quatre a curious look Relena shook her head with small smile playing at the corner's of her mouth. "No, it's just shortened name that Adam first christened me with since he feels the need to shorten names," she explained, pushing a bit of hair behind her ear. "Um…are you ready to go inside?"

Quatre scratched the back of his head as he admitted, "I don't have a ticket, so I'll have to stand in line..."

Patting down her pockets, Relena pulled something out of her back pocket and showed Quatre two tickets. "No need, I took care to the tickets months ago, and one of my friends, Jackson, got sick at the last minute so he gave me his ticket," she told him with a victorious smirk. "Come on; let's go get our badges and free comics."

Chuckling a bit, Quatre nodded and followed Relena into the pre-ordered line. This was going to be one interesting experience.

"You know," Hilde pointed out as Duo picked at the locked, back door or the Alley home, "this is called breaking and entering. We _could_ get arrested if we're caught. We're not Preventers anymore, Duo."

"Hush up, I'm working here," Duo shushed, concentrating on the door as he moved the paper clips about a bit until a CLICK was heard. "I think I've got it." Pushing the door, it swung open with ease as though inviting the two inside to have a look around.

"Hello?" Duo called out as he stepped inside the house only to be kicked by Hilde. "Hey!"

Putting a finger to her lips, Hilde ordered her boyfriend to be quiet. That was the last thing they needed, to be caught by some random friend or family member who just happened to be in the house still.

When there was no reply or sound of movement, Hilde let out a sigh of relief and hit Duo in the arm.

"Abuse!" he cried out.

"Idiot, we could have just been caught! Next time, remember that we're supposed to be doing this without anyone knowing," reminded Hilde, moving past Duo for the stairs.

Finding Joey's room wasn't that hard, it was behind the first door they opened and it was completely dark. There was only one black light to illuminate the room, a long table of lab equipment against one wall, computer in another corner, black curtains blocking all sunlight, and several posters and articles about black holes, constellations, galaxies, and random stars.

"I think I guess her favorite color," Duo commented upon entering the room.

"Yeah, the same as yours, black," stated Hilde, going over the computer desk and looking about it for any clues.

Looking around the bed and nightstand, Duo asked, "So what exactly are we even looking for? Heero wasn't very specific on his instructions."

Opening a draw and digging through the contents, Hilde answered, "From what you told me, we're supposed to be looking for anything like a letter with Relena's signature, an ID of some sort, social security card…Mmph, diary if she keeps one."

"Well, while we're here, why don't you check my e-mail for me, see if Trowa and Wufei replied at all," Duo suggested, sitting on Joey's bed, flipping through some books that were lying about. There was one particular book that laid open on the bed with a plastic card as a book mark.

"Fine," Hilde sighed, accessing Joey's computer and going onto the internet. She knew Duo's password to his e-mail only because it was his nickname. It was a little too careless for a former gundam pilot in Hilde's opinion.

Ignoring his girlfriend, Duo picked up the plastic bookmark and turned it over. "Oh no…" he muttered.

"Hey Duo, Trowa is on his way to Philadelphia to meet Quatre. And get this; Quatre is there for the whole day, sounds a bit off, eh?" Hilde told him, leaning back in the chair, tapping a finger to her chin. "Is Quatre going to Philadelphia to see Relena? And if he is, how did he know that she was going to be there?"

"Um Hilde, did you keep anything when you left the preventers?" Duo inquired, nervously.

Thinking about it for a moment, Hilde nodded. "Yeah, I kept my old identification card but I haven't seen that thing in weeks. I must have misplaced it somewhere in my room." Turning to the bed, Hilde cocked her head to the side in inquiry. "Why do you ask?"

Getting up, Duo tossed Hilde the bookmark.

Catching the thing of plastic, Hilde looked at it. On top was a sticky note with the message 'From Ricky' written in messy handwriting. Lifting up the sticky note Hilde found herself starring at her picture on her old identification card for the preventers.

"They knew," she realized. "They've known who we were and what we were doing here."

"Damn right they did, and no doubt, everyone here has been playing us since they found that damned card of yours!" Duo pointed out, ready to punch the wall. "This royally sucks!"

Shoving her card into her pocket, Hilde closed the e-mail and shut off the computer. "We need to call Heero," she stated calmly but with a hint of guilt.

"What for? To tell him that you basically screwed us over?" growled Duo, unknowingly walking into an argument with his girlfriend.

"We need to inform Heero that Quatre is with Relena," Hilde reminded, exiting the room.

Nodding his head sagely, Duo echoed, "That's right, we need to tell him that Quatre is with Relen…What?!" Dashing out of the room, Duo stomped down the steps after Hilde. "Wait! Quatre is with Relena!? Why?"

Rolling her eyes, Hilde spun around and glared at her boyfriend, she hated having to repeat herself.

"According to Trowa," she explained, "Quatre is in Philadelphia for the day and it isn't on business either. My guess is that he is meeting Relena at the comic convention. He somehow knew that she was going to be there! Got that this time or do I need to repeat myself again?"

Duo stood shell-shocked for a moment. "Hey, how does Trowa know this?!"

"He was setting out to meet Quatre in Philadelphia for dinner," shrugged Hilde.

A knowing smirk spread on Duo's face. "He's finally making his move. About time too."

Bewildered, Hilde asked, "What move? What is it 'about time' for?"

Duo never got to answer as the front door opened to reveal the guy Warren wandering in with a book in his hand. He stopped at the sight of Hilde and Duo, who was out of his Selfie persona.

Realization seemed to dawn upon Warren quickly. "Oh shit!" he muttered before making a break for the door again.

"Get him!" Hilde ordered her boyfriend and Duo obliged.

He chased Warren out of the front door while Hilde went out the back door to cut Warren off in case he tried to escape through the backyard.

Warren led Duo down the street, through neighboring yards, in circles around houses, even through Jason's house, only to lead to Jackson's house and to be confronted by Hilde when she stepped from behind the side of the house.

"Hey, Warren right?" she greeted, after having grabbed Warren's arm and held him firmly. He didn't resist at all, thankfully, making it easy for Hilde to keep a hold on him while waiting for Duo to catch up.

A few seconds later Duo came running up.

"So Warren," Duo smiled, while still catching his breath, "care to give us some help?"

The college student didn't answer.

"Well, do you know who we really are?" Hilde inquired sweetly, maintaining a tight hold on Warren's arm.

He nodded but still said nothing.

"Care to tell us who Relena is?" Duo suggested, cracking his knuckles in a threatening manner despite the fact that he had no intention of hitting the kid. It was just a scare tactic that the God of Death was using.

Again, Warren said nothing but shook his head, causing Hilde to start twisting Warren's arm until the college student grimaced in pain.

"Ow, ow, ow! That hurts you know!" Warren cried out, wrenching his arm out of Hilde's grasp. "Your girlfriend has one evil grip," remarked Warren, rubbing his injured arm.

"Don't I know it," Duo agreed.

"Not to mention that it was unnecessary to twist my arm like that. All you two had to do was ask nicely, jeez," Warren pointed out.

"We did ask nicely," defended Hilde, crossing her arms, while still eyeing Warren for any tell-tale signs that he might try to run again.

Warren grinned, "No, you asked if I was willing to tell you who Relena was. I'm not willing to but Relena gave strict instructions on what to do, 'if they ask who I am, tell them.' Waste of time in my opinion."

"Who is Relena?!" Hilde and Duo shouted in unison.

"Well…"

**Frankie-4**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-1**

**Jason-3**.


	26. Kissing Relena

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

**One, I repeat, one more chapter to go! Yes, I'm closing this fic within two more chapters and it feels great!**

Once off the plane, Heero immediately turned his cell phone on and followed Zeches out of the airport to the awaiting Preventer's jeep with a driver. The driver was Wufei, much to Heero's relief. However, Wufei was surprised to see Heero though.

"What is he doing here?" Wufei demanded as Zeches jumped into the front seat and Heero into the back, handing a sheet of paper to Wufei.

"Drive there as quickly as possible," Heero ordered.

Wufei raised an eyebrow at Zeches and the older man just shook his head, handing Heero a preventer badge, so that they both could get into the place without having to buy tickets.

"Just do it, it's Heero's plan since he seems to have all of this figured out," Zeches sighed, sitting back as the driver pulled into traffic, heading to the convention center.

Abruptly, Heero's cell phone went off. Digging into his back pocket Heero brought out the phone and saw that it was Duo's number. Blocking one ear with his free hand, Heero opened his phone and held it up to his other ear.

"Yuy!" he shouted, leaning forward to minimize the amount of wind that would interfere with the conversation.

"Heero," Duo's crackling voice shouted, "man, where are you, I can barely hear you!"

Rolling his eyes, Heero groaned, "What did you find?!" They didn't have time to talk about meaningless subjects such as where Heero's current position was.

"Quatre's with Relena," Duo declared over the phone in a loud voice.

"What?!" Heero exclaimed. How was that possible?! How would Quatre have known who Relena was or where she was?

Duo sighed, exasperatedly, "As I said, Quatre's with Relena in Philadelphia. I contacted his secretary and she said he had taken a vacation but according to Trowa, Quatre's in Philadelphia."

_How would Trowa know that?_ Heero thought for a moment but didn't bother to voice the question, as it would be off the subject. "Go on."

"Well, I don't know about you but I can't think of any other reason someone like Quatre would go to Philly for only today unless it was to meet with someone, such as Relena," explained Duo.

Pulling the phone away from his ear, Heero related the news to the rest of the jeep passengers, causing even more bewildered expressions.

"Anything else?" Heero questioned, returning the phone to his ear.

"Yeah, they've been playing us Heero! The entire town has known exactly who we were the entire time!" Duo informed Heero while there was the sound of arguing between Hilde and someone else in the background.

"What? How?!"

There was more static before Duo's answered, "Someone, Ricky to be more precious, had found Hilde's Preventer ID and gave it to Joey."

"So Joey's Relena?" Heero assumed.

"Relena is…"

* * *

He just couldn't figure it out, where did this liveliness come from? Quatre watched as Relena examined booth after booth of comics, movies, games, and CDs with an enthusiastic eye.

"Oh my God!" cried Relena picking up a CD and showing it to Quatre. "Look, they have _our _CD, 'For Rel'!"

Looking at the CD that had a photo of the five band members with a multicolored background. It must have been their first CD for Relena was still wearing very formal clothing while the other band members were casually dressed.

"Wow, that's great Relena, how much do they want for it?" Quatre inquired, taking the CD and looking over the songs on the back.

"Uh…" Relena glanced at the sign beneath the box of CDs. "Ten dollars even. Why?" Glancing up, Relena saw Quatre handing one of the girls working the booth some money and receiving a bag with the CD inside. "What are you doing?!" Relena cried.

Throwing Relena a winning grin, Quatre gave her a wink. "Being a fan, I wanted to get my CD autographed, in person, by the real Relena Salimar Darlian-Peacecraft," teased Quatre, pulling out the CD as they walked away.

"Are you serious?" Relena questioned with shocked eyes. Quatre nodded as he pulled the plastic off of the CD. "Oh my God, I feel like some sort of celebrity except without all the tabloid articles and scandals."

Quatre snorted, moving toward the wall, "Like politics. Here, can you sign this for me, please."

Taking the CD, Relena began searching her pockets for something to write with; she found a permanent marker in her back pocket. Opening the case, Relena uncapped the pen and pulled out the lyric pamphlet, signing her real name under her image.

Watching Relena sign the CD for him, Quatre began to tap his foot out of nervousness and fidget with his hands. He wanted to tell Relena his feelings so much but he was afraid to tell her straight out.

"Here you go," Relena smiled, handing her friend the CD. When Quatre took back the CD, Relena noticed how quiet her friend was and how he just could seem to stand still. "Quatre, are you okay?"

Not saying anything, Quatre merely looked down at his shoes comparing his brown loafers to Relena's pink flat-forms.

Trying to catch Quatre's eye, Relena inquired, "Quatre, what's wrong?"

Licking his lips a bit, Quatre lifted his head and found that all the words he wanted to say were frozen in the back of his throat. Why did this have to be so hard?!

"Relena…"

It was his tone that made Relena suddenly realize that she was about to be put into a situation of complete seriousness and it might turn out to be a situation she didn't want to be involved in. Still, as Quatre was her friend, she was going to hear him out and not think less of him for whatever he tells her.

"Relena…uh…we've known each other for a while now, right?" Quatre stated, even though it was more of an uncertain question.

"For the most part," confirmed Relena, very apprehensive about what was to be spoken next.

"Well…uh…well, you know-I know how you still have feelings for Heero and all…" Relena tensed up for a moment at the mention of Heero's name. "I…you see…I-I-uh…"

The poor guy obviously needed some encouragement.

"You what?" Relena asked softly, leaning in a bit so as to not be heard by others that were around them.

Biting his lip, Quatre shook his head. "Listen, I know you still have feelings for Heero and everything, but I was wondering if perhaps you would be willing to give me a chance." He bowed his head down toward the floor again.

There, he had said something remotely close to his feelings for Relena, now Quatre had to face whatever reaction that may come. Most likely it would be something along the lines of 'I can't' or 'I'm really not looking for a relationship'. Quatre just knew something like one of those were going to come out of Relena's mouth while her eyes spoke volumes of rejection.

Suddenly, Relena's fingers were on Quatre's chin, lifting his face upward. The young representative's ocean blue eyes met Relena's sapphire ones which held, to Quatre's surprise, compassion and understanding.

Without a single word, Relena hugged Quatre gently and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I would have been more than happy to give you a chance Quatre, and I still would be happy to, but you know how I feel about Heero," Relena told him gently. "If things were different I would most certainly be happy to give a relationship with you a shot. And that's not a rejection, no one could reject you."

Smiling a bit, Quatre returned Relena's embrace for a moment.

"Then may I ask a favor of you?" Quatre requested.

Pulling back a bit, Relena nodded. She knew that Quatre must have been hurting from her reasoning but she truly felt that Trowa needed a true chance to win Quatre's favor, if he could. So, Relena felt that she owed Quatre a favor or two.

"May I kiss you?"

It came to Relena as a surprise. She wasn't quite certain what she expected the favor to be but a kiss most certainly would not have been the first item in mind.

A bit unsure of what to say or do, Relena numbly nodded.

Hesitantly, Quatre leaned forward; he was so scared. What would happen from that moment on? What would their relationship be afterwards? Would it change for the worst…Quatre stopped. He didn't want things to change for the worst between him and Relena. He wanted to be with Relena, as more than friends, but that wasn't possible.

"Quatre?" Relena breathed bewilderedly as she realized that Quatre wasn't going to kiss her.

The walkie-talkie crackled a bit as one of the female voices shouted through the speaker, "Lena? Hey girl, we've got a problem here. Your brother, stalker, and some Chinese guy just walked into the place and they're on the search for you. Better start running hon. Lena?"

"Sounds like Heero's here," Quatre muttered in disappointment.

"Yeah," nodded Relena, plucking the walkie-talkie off her pants. "Guys, disperse and keep them distracted for as long as you can."

"Ten-four," came several replies.

With a depressed sigh, Relena looked up at Quatre. "Sorry that I have to cut this short," she apologized.

"It's okay, you've got to run," shrugged Quatre pretending not to be disappointed.

Without giving any warning, Relena stood up on her tiptoes and gently planted her soft lips against Quatre's.

At first the young representative had been too shocked to actually respond to the kiss, but slowly he began to return it, unaware that Relena was slipping a note into his pant's pocket.

As Quatre was starting to close his eyes to relish in the feel of Relena's lips upon his when he noticed Zeches a far distance behind Relena. He seemed to be searching the room for his baby sister.

Slowly pulling out of the kiss, reluctantly, Quatre embraced Relena and whispered in her ear, "When I say 'go', run to _your_ right as fast as you can. Do not look behind or anything, understand?"

Nodding her silent agreement, Relena swallowed as she waited for the word.

Intently watching Zeches as the older man began to make his way toward them, Quatre counted down the footsteps.

"Go."

The word was barely out of his mouth before Relena took off in a sprint to her right and Quatre threw a bag that had two t-shirts in it at the Zeches. The older man slapped the bag aside but he had lost track of his sister by the time he had glanced in the direction she went.

Leaving the bag, Zeches approached Quatre and pulled out his walkie-talkie that was set on channel 6. "Heero, Wufei, I just saw Relena, she's taken off into the crowds but I have Quatre here."

* * *

Amongst the crowd, Heero scanned the people looking for any sign of Relena or any of her friends. It was amazing how many people actually turned out for such things as comic conventions. The crowd made it so hard to find Relena.

Apparently, Relena had fooled them all by playing a duel role of Robin _and_ sometimes Frankie. The real Frankie was in fact a girl but she would sometimes play the role of Robin when Relena wasn't dressed for the part. For the most part though, Relena was Robin and she had once again been right under Heero's nose the entire time.

It was just so frustrating…!

_There!_ Heero had just seen a person with short, dark blond hair which might mean that it was either Robin-Relena-or Frankie. Either way, Frankie-the real one-would most certainly help him locate Relena.

Moving through the crowd, Heero realized that it was in fact the real Frankie who he had found but she had spotted him as well for she began to weave her way through the people while speaking into the walkie-talkie.

Using his strategic skills from being a soldier to determine where Frankie was heading, Heero maneuvered his way to the girl, cutting her off in front of T-shirt booth. Frankie wasn't able to react fast enough as Heero grabbed her arm and held her firmly in place.

"Where is Relena, Frankie?" he demanded of her.

The girl turned sharply toward Heero and matched his usual death glare with one of her own. "Like I would actually tell you, _Heero_," Frankie snorted in disdain.

"Please Frankie," implored Heero, softening his tone. "I _need_ to speak with Relena. Please."

Raising a suspicious eyebrow, Frankie eyed Heero critically until something behind Heero caught her eye. Trying not to betray what she saw, Frankie held up the walkie-talkie to Heero.

"Then _talk_ to her."

Taking the walkie-talkie with his free hand, Heero pressed down on the button and spoke into it. "Relena?"

No answer came just various clicks but no words.

"Relena, please talk to me."

"Leave her alone," came a series of commanding voices from all of the other friends.

"I need to talk with Relena," Heero declared into the walkie-talkie.

There was another period of silence and Heero was about to give it all up when a click was heard. "What do you want Heero?"

Finding it hard to swallow, Heero tried to find his voice. When was the last time he had actually spoken to Relena while knowing it was in fact Relena? Too long if she was having such an effect upon him.

"Heero, you aren't tongue-tied are you?" teased Relena, surprising Heero.

"Relena, I…I…uh…I think that I am in l…" Heero began, trying to find the right wording for such a statement. However he was interrupted.

"Don't," Relena interjected firmly. "Don't you dare say things you don't mean Heero. I'm not going back to the world of politics. It might be selfish but if you thought about it, after my term or two terms in office what would have happened to me?"

Heero was stumped. He had never quite thought about Relena's future _after _her life as Vice-Foreign Minister because his mind was always thinking of the present situations, never the future.

"You forget Heero; I'm without a high school education. I would like to have something that will help me with a job in the future, in a future that I want. Politics most certainly not…" Relena explained but cut off. "See you guys, love you all."

"Love you too Relena," echoed several voices on the walkie-talkie.

Switching walkie-talkies, Heero contacted his comrades. "Relena's making a run for the entrance!" he yelled.

"No she's not," Wufei responded, "I've been watching the entrance I haven't seen anyone that looked remotely like Relena come out of the area."

"What about a girl in all black?" Zeches' voice suggested.

"One," confirmed Wufei.

"Shit!" Heero cursed. She had gotten away again and this time he was just so close to her. So very close!

Veering toward Frankie, Heero pulled her close and growled, "Where is she going and don't you lie to me."

"Why should I tell you anything?" Frankie challenged, not even bothering to struggle even though Heero's grip on her arm had tightened.

"I…I…" Why was it so hard to say those words, 'I love her'? What made it so difficult to say those words?

Shaking her head, Frankie inquired, "Do you really love her or are you just trying to trick her into revealing herself to you? Because boy, if you are just toying with her feelings then there's going to be hell to pay. That is a promise, not a threat."

"Are you and Draca always this defensive about Relena?" Heero commented.

"Yes, now answer my question," Frankie commanded, wrenching her arm out of Heero's grasp, then crossing her arms over her chest. "This better be good."

Sighing, Heero nodded, "I do love her."

"What about Sylvia?" Frankie pointed out, testing to see if Heero was being honest or if he was lying just to get answers.

Chuckling a bit, Heero answered, "We broke up due to my feelings toward Relena."

That seemed to have caused a change in Frankie's countenance as she relaxed and let her defenses down for a bit. "Oh my God…really?" she muttered in complete surprise.

The former gundam pilot nodded solemnly.

"Well, if that's the case then I can definitely make certain that you can see her face to face at least once. I just need your little preventer friends to do something and I need to place in a call to Adam."

**Thank you to: crystal-gundam, Liz, Lynn-Minmay, Morrighan of Crimson and Sable, Ulitheal, and Bradybunch4529. You guys are awesome!**

**Now remember, I still have one more chapter to go, so you guys know that this isn't the real end. I have a good ending all planned out, I just hope that I can write it as well as it appears in my mind.**

**Again, thank you everyone.**

**Frankie-4**

**Robin-3**

**Joey-1**

**Salem-1**

**Jason-3**.


	27. Second Chances?

Get Rel

NOTE: I **don't **own Gundam **Wing** or its **characters.**

It was a beautiful day indeed on June 20, AC 199, to be strolling leisurely along the sidewalks of Italy while the clouds were infrequent and the sun beaming its rays. The perfect day to be tending to the gardens, which was exactly what Heero saw the girl doing as he approached the back garden beds of the Noventa household.

About three weeks ago two things happened: one, the Preventers had announced the dismissal of all searches for Relena Darlian and swore not to interfere with her life ever again. Two, Duo, Hilde, and Heero each got reinstated as Preventers, but were being carefully watched by Lady Une, especially Heero.

Then about two weeks ago another event took place, Frankie had sent Heero a flyer with the words 'For Rel Performs at Giorgio's Avvocati'. The band had reunited and returned to Italy apparently, and, Heero discovered later, Relena and her band mates had returned to their rooms at the Noventa household.

There was only one real reason why Heero hadn't gone to see Relena earlier, he had to wait to request a day off, that day happened to be a month since the last time he spoke to Relena, when she snuck out of the convention pretending to be Joey-supposedly.

Now, after all this time, Heero now saw Relena-no longer using the names Salimar Reigns or Robin Shelly-weeding the gardens in a pair of blue jean overalls and a tank top. She looked more youthful with her hair pulled back into a small ponytail and a content smile gracing her lips as she pulled out each weed.

"Happy late birthday Relena," Heero spoke up, startling Relena from her work.

"So, you found me. No wonder why Adam and Lynn were so insistent upon bringing the band back together and returning to this place," Relena sighed, standing up, brushing her soil covered hands on her overalls. "Well, you've found me, now what?"

There were so many questions that Heero wanted answered but all of those could be set aside for later, right now he wanted to finish his statement from the comic convention.

"I…I wanted to talk with you," replied Heero seeing the suspicion in Relena's eyes. Before this whole runaway incident Heero was positive he would never have seen a hint of suspicion or doubt in her sapphire eyes, but now things had changed.

Tucking a bit of hair behind her ear, Relena had returned to her natural hair color and now Heero saw for the first time that she had cut her hair, also that she wore glasses.

"Well," Relena started, licking her lips out of nervousness, "then you better get started talking because I'm sure you have a flight to catch later on today."

Nodding his acknowledgement of the truth, he did have a plane to catch later that day, Heero gestured for Relena to follow him.

She did so, walking beside Heero as he led her over to a bench and motioned for her to take a seat; Relena just stood there waiting patiently for Heero to start talking.

Wiping his sweaty palms on his pants Heero had to keep himself from pacing, he most certainly didn't wish to make a fool out of himself before Relena.

"I see you have got your hair cut," Heero commented, pointing at her hair, wanting so much to touch it but felt that he was not permitted to do so. With an awkward smile, Relena nodded and Heero immediately felt that he needed to somehow compliment on her hair. "It…it looks good on you."

"Thanks," Relena smiled, hiding her hands behind her back. "Yeah, Draca suggested it a while ago. In fact, it was before that day at Giorgio's bar when you met me as Salimar. Draca cut my hair in some sort of upward diagonal, going from front to back. Quatre liked it too."

Inside, Heero felt a pang of jealous toward the young representative, especially since he had been able to be in Relena's company not just once but _twice_ without anyone knowing it. Quatre had been the first person to really see Relena without her wearing a disguise and it angered Heero.

"Why did you contact Quatre?" Heero voiced.

Relena shrugged, "Lynn had talked to him at the fundraiser and he had said how he would like to see me even if it meant having to let me go again. So, I called him up that night then I called him another time and we arranged to meet at Six Flags Amusement Park." Taking a seat, Relena stared up at Heero meaningfully. "He was at least willing to let me go which is something I doubt you would have done at that time."

Knowing how correct Relena's assumption was, Heero nodded as he ran a hand through his hair. "Relena, may I ask you something?" Heero inquired, sitting down beside her.

"Go ahead; no one's stopping you but yourself."

"Are you in love with Quatre?" The question had been plaguing Heero for a while after Zeches had told him that he had seen Relena and Quatre kissing at the convention; then, when confronted by intimidating Heero, Quatre had refused to confirm or deny Relena's affections.

Suddenly, Relena's countenance gave Heero the impression that she wanted nothing more than to become one with the bench to avoid the question, but she couldn't. No, Relena had to answer the question.

"Why are you so curious, Heero? It is not as though you actually feel a thing for me beyond obligations toward your vows to kill and protect me," retorted Relena, her voice becoming cold and hard.

Heero's eyes hardened to match her voice. "Did you not understand what I was trying to tell you last month? I love you Relena, I was not lying when I was saying that."

A softened yet perplexed expression crossed Relena's face as she searched Heero's eyes for the sincerity. It was no secret to Heero that his eyes reflected his thoughts and emotions most of the time when his face and words did not. Sometimes it was easy to read Heero's eyes, depending on the person, and other times it was difficult, but with Relena it was always easy.

Her mouth opened to say something but then closed as she shook her head, turning to look at the ground.

"There is truth to your words Heero," Relena stated quietly, "but tell me this, how can I trust you with my heart again? You've hurt me several times in the past Heero, so what's to say that you won't do it again?"

"I vow to…"

Relena interjected, "Don't vow anything Heero! I know you're a man of honor but your vows are easily…adjustable to suit your needs. At one time that would have been enough for me to trust you but not now."

"Then time and a second chance," Heero declared, causing Relena to raise an inquiring eyebrow at him.

"Second chance? Are you even certain that I'm willing to give you even _that_?" she challenged him.

Heero groaned inwardly; she just had to say that, didn't she? Had to go and crash his high hopes!

"I was kind of…hoping that you would be willing to give me a second chance with you, that is if you haven't found someone, like Quatre," Heero muttered, trying not to fidget with his hands. So instead, he crossed his legs.

Shaking her head, Relena began to laugh gently with amusement. However, Heero didn't see what she found so amusing about what he had said, so he began to take offense to being laughed at.

Wiping her eyes, Relena giggled, "You're still stuck onto that Quatre question, aren't you?" Not waiting for a reply Relena continued, "Well, if you must know, I do not love Quatre in that way, I love him as a friend. He knows that my heart belongs to you."

He couldn't help it, a victorious grin spread across Heero's face. She didn't love Quatre! Instead, Relena was in love with him still, that meant that Heero still had some sort of a chance with her.

Before Heero could say another thing however, Relena rose to her feet and wiped her hands on her overalls again. "I'll be hosting a Christmas party this year Heero for all my friends, past and present. If you come to it then we can talk about second chances, okay?"

Heero lifted an eyebrow. "We're negotiating on this?" he asked. _She knows that I don't take off for Christmas,_ Heero thought, silently cursing himself.

"Indeed, for a relationship is not just founded on emotions but on giving and taking, much like when riding a horse," Relena told him with a wink. She still remembered how one of the girls at the St. Gabriel Institution had said that Heero didn't need any lessons in horsemanship.

Blinking several times, Heero didn't realize that Relena had returned to her weeding until he was left all alone on the bench.

Shaking his head, Heero stood up and watched Relena as she began to weed again. "Mission accepted."

* * *

December 24, AC 199, Duo and Hilde pulled up in front of the Darlian household still a bit unsure as to why Mrs. Darlian had invited them and other preventers to a Christmas party, and wondered, even more so, why Heero urged them to go. It was all very unusual.

"What is wrong with my dress!" Hilde demanded as she got out of the car.

"It shows off too much…" Duo gestured with his hands over his chest.

"Cleavage?" offered Hilde, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly!" Duo nodded, locking the car before escorting his girlfriend to the door. "I don't need some jerk to be checking you out in front of me."

Ringing the doorbell, Hilde replied, "Then I'll be sure that you're not there."

Before Duo could reply the door was opened and the couple immediately exclaimed "Merry Christmas" in cheery voices, completely unaware of who had answered the door.

"Merry Christmas to you two as well," returned an all too familiar voice, causing both Duo's and Hilde's jaws to drop. "Well, don't just stand there, come on inside, it must be cold out there."

"R…Relena?" Hilde muttered in disbelief.

"Yeah, now get in-" Relena couldn't finish her sentence before Hilde pounced upon her, hugging the former Vice Foreign Minister tightly, only to be joined by Duo in a matter of seconds.

"Oh my God!" Hilde cried out, pulling away for a moment then hugging Relena again. "It's really you."

Chuckling a bit, Relena returned the embraces of both her friends. "I should think so considering the fact that this is _my_ Christmas party."

Backing away, Duo closed the door behind him and removed his coat. "Really? You're the one who sent out the invites? No wonder why Heero had threatened us into coming here."

Relena's eyes narrowed a bit as she cried, "He didn't, did he?"

Hilde shook her head while removing her coat, "No, he just urged us to come here, saying that there was supposed to be a surprise here for us."

"So, where's the surprise?" asked Duo playfully.

"Under the tree," Relena winked, playing along with Duo as she began leading the couple to the ballroom. "Now come, the rest of the guests are already here, and I want to introduce you to my cousin Francis, aka Frankie, Shelly."

Duo and Hilde stopped dead in their tracks. "She's your cousin!" they cried out.

"Yeah," confirmed Relena, "her father is my mother's brother, as my Grandfather, Marquis Weridge, was kind enough to inform me. Do not ask me why it isn't on my record, for you searched hard enough you probably would have found that information."

Upon entering the ballroom, Hilde and Duo found it filled with man familiar faces from the other gundam pilots to the 'For Rel' band to Relena's friends from Sheboygan. It was just jammed with people and in the corner the band had its instruments all set up for a performance.

"Lena," Adam called out as he rushed up to meet the hostess, "we're ready to start playing whenever you're ready."

Glancing at her friends, Relena turned back to Adam saying, "Then let's start the carols right now before the gift exchange."

Glowing with delight, Adam took off leaping and skipping over to the other band members while Relena turned to Hilde and Duo.

"I hope you two know some Christmas songs because we're all going to be singing along with the band," she told the couple.

Duo laughed as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and Hilde looked down at her shoes awkwardly. Obviously they didn't know Christmas Carols, but thankfully Relena came prepared for that.

"Don't worry about it, most people here don't the carols either, so I took the liberty of making these lyric sheets for you guys. You two can share this copy," Relena smiled, handing Hilde a packet of lyrics before running off to the piano as the other band members set up.

* * *

He was late, Heero knew that, but the fault didn't belong just to Heero but also to the stores that were closed as it was Christmas Eve. Unnaturally, Heero had gone out at the last moment to get a gift for Relena. It had taken him a good hour and a half to find a store that was open; then it took him another half hour to get the present ready.

Sitting in his car outside the Darlian house, Heero tightened his tie and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He looked like an old man.

Loosening the tie, Heero unbuttoned one the top button of his shirt and did a once over with his hair using his hands despite how futile it was. Why was his hair so untamable?

"Forget it," Heero grunted, opening up his door and grabbing a colorfully wrapped box.

Coming up to the door, Heero saw that it was left jarred just a little bit. Obviously Duo's handiwork as the braided man never could close the door_ all_ the way.

Shaking his head, Heero stealthily snuck through the door and closed the door, _all the way_, then proceeded to follow the noise of music down a hall to a huge room filled with lots of people.

Nearing the doorway, Heero almost turned around. _People,_ he scoffed, _I hate having to socialize._

"I'll be home for Christmas

You can plan on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents on the tree,"

Heero heard Relena's voice singing from the room, causing Heero to continue making his way to the ballroom.

"Christmas Eve will find me

Where the love light gleams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams."

Her voice was pleasant, no way near professional, but pleasant to the ears especially when accompanied by piano, bass, and some soft drums.

As though in a trance, Heero entered the room, standing behind Hilde and Duo, who turned around to him in surprise.

"Hey, Heero, I almost thought you wouldn't make it to the party. Did you find a gift for her?" Duo grinned and was silenced when Heero held up the present. "I see that you did."

Heero hadn't noticed the music had stopped until Relena approached them with joyous smile.

Heero noted how Relena was not dressed in some fancy dress or high heels that killed her feet, but rather in a black pants and a lavender sweater that fit her snugly. As beautiful as Heero thought Relena was in allthose lovely dresses that she used to wear to fundraisers and other dances, Heero believed her to be even more beautiful in the simple pants and sweater.

"Heero," she greeted, maintaining eye contact with the 'Perfect Soldier', "I'm glad to see that you made it to the party. Could I speak to you, _privately_?"

Duo and Hilde exchanged glances before moving away from their friends. Not satisfied with Hilde and Duo moving away from them, Relena led Heero to a corner of the room, far from the rest of the party.

"Thank you for taking off for Christmas Eve, for once," Relena told Heero with a genuine smile. She was truly happy to see him at the party. "You can put the present under the tree if you would like."

Glancing down at the box he was still holding, Heero shook his head. "Actually, since it's just you and I right now, I was hoping you would open it now."

Intrigued, Relena quirked an eyebrow as she took the box from Heero and gently tore at the tape and peeled back the folds of wrapping paper until the box was no longer covered.

Not knowing where to put the wrapping paper, Relena handed it to Heero and proceeded to open the box, unable to hold back her excitement.

The last time Relena had received a gift from Heero was for her 16th birthday with the teddy bear and 'Happy Birthday' note. So, for Relena to finally be given a present from Heero was quite a shock.

Opening the box, Relena found three small teddy bears resting inside; each of them had a bracelet around their necks. Those weren't ordinary bracelets though, they were her ID bracelets! One bear bore the name 'Relena', the next had 'Salimar', and the last had 'Darlian'.

In a state of complete astonishment, Relena took out the bear that had 'Relena' written on it and looked up at Heero with wide eyes.

"I thought they should be returned to their rightful owner," Heero explained with shrug.

Arms were flung about Heero's neck, but he didn't realize thatuntil he felt Relena's chin rest in the crook of his neck.

"Thank you so much Heero," she whispered in his ear, giving him a light kiss on the cheek as a light was flashed at the two.

Looking up, Heero and Relena saw the entire room watching them in awe and Adam standing there with a camera ready in hand. On his face he wore a big cheesy grin as his finger pointed up to the ceiling.

Confused, the two turned their heads to the ceiling to find a piece of mistletoe hanging above their heads.

"Adam," Relena growled playfully.

"Come on Lena, one kiss," Adam pouted, holding up his camera.

Shaking her head, Relena returned her attention to Heero with questioning eyes. There was no way she was going to force him into doing something he didn't wish to do.

"Tradition," Heero suggested.

"That's true," agreed Relena.

Tentatively, Heero leaned down to kiss her but was met half way as Relena stood up on her tip-toes. It was a kiss unlike those Heero had ever shared with Sylvia for this one was not one of lust or longing but rather one of deep felt emotions and love.

Kissing Relena gently, Heero kept himself from pushing it further for he did not wish to scare Relena away in anyway or get into a compromising situation with so many present. Thus, Heero was the person to push away a couple of seconds after the third click of the camera.

Gazing into Relena's eyes, Heero found exactly what he was searching for; love. It was plainly written in her eyes as she stared up at him, a bit dazed from the kiss.

"Does this mean I get a second chance?" he inquired softly.

With gentle smile, Relena gave Heero a quick kiss on the lips before saying, "Yes, and it is well deserved."

"Awe…" sighed the audience, causing Heero and Relena blush a bit as they looked away.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" one person began to chant then the entire room joined in, especially Duo, who was the loudest voice of them all.

Laughing a bit, Relena didn't expect Heero to kiss her again until she felt his lips on hers.

"Whoa!" Adam cheered. "Merry Christmas everybody!"

**I had planned to thank everyone separately but it's late, my mom is likely to wake up soon and yell at me. Since I can't thank you guys for your support separately but naming everyone, I'll have to thank you all collectively. THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND FEEDBACK, IT WAS/IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED! YOU GUYS ARE ALL GREAT!**

**Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!**


End file.
